Last Updated on August 27, 2024 by Brian Beck
Do you want to know what is wrong with your lawn? Read on…
Most of what is causing your frustration is in your soil, or more specifically is not in your soil. Let me explain. Back in 2017 I had what I refer to as a Troy Aikman moment. I had to ask after witnessing over 15 years of “conventional wisdom” in action. I was doing what the industry told me I should be doing but that was not delivering results and I began to question that system. I wanted more, I wanted answers. The system that I was engaged in wasn’t solving my problems. I use the word “system” now but there was not a word for it back in 2017 as I was doing what everyone else was doing and there was not an alternative.
In the Fall of 2017 I had a conversation with an individual that was a consultant to the hemp industry. I only spoke to him for 80 minutes, the first hour was about soil. He told me things about soil that I had never heard anyone talk about before. Things such as microbiology, soil health and the soils ability to hold water and the ability to detoxify a soil. He ended the conversation with a challenge. He said, ” Brian, learn about your soil and everything else will make sense. You will be a great asset to your customers.”
Fast forward after 1500 plus hours learning about soil biology and chemistry and running over 100 soil tests I can clearly tell you that the soil here sucks. There are many reasons why and a lot of them are cause by the use of synthetic fertilizers. The inorganic salts destroy microbial life that create structure in the soil, provide immunity for the plants, contribute to the soils ability to hold water, control the breakdown of organic material and breakdown inorganic elements in eth soil so that the plants can use them. There are also the pre-development geological history and the post-development history, both of which we cannot change but we can control the effects of man made chemicals by not using them and developing a healthy, organic, biologically active soil that can hold water and serve the root.
Problems such as thatch, compacted soil, weeds, disease, and high water bills are directly linked to the use of synthetic fertilizers. The things that are afflicting your soil are microscopic such as pH, Organic material, humus content, CEC, etc. These can all be identified and pinpointed with a soil test. Anything less is just an educated guess, at best. These inefficiencies in the soil have a real cost and I would find it safe to say that 20-50% of all the money that you put into your lawn is complete waste. Our system, the biological one that we are using, is designed to create efficiency by eliminating the roadblocks that exist in between the soil and the root and remove them and create balance. We initiate this with a soil test. They pay for themselves both with performance and also with a mitigated lawn expense.
