Winter Innovation

We all slow down when Winter starts to set in. For me, it coincides with the time change. Without much sunlight to work with, but with the same amount of time, I find myself lying in bed a little longer to listen to my wife breathe gently, sitting a little longer over my second cup of coffee in front of the fire, or taking a little longer way to work.

When the crew shows up to work, a little later each week, we chat more about family and kids rather than the work day ahead. The slowness of it all was a welcome relief from the hectic asses-and-elbows mentality of early Spring. But this year is different; it is different for all of us. At Soilutions, we sit in the office and wonder, sometimes aloud, whether this is the year that breaks us. Did we do enough when times were better? True, each winter is tight but we have always had a nest egg from the Spring that, if budgeted properly, would get us through until the phones ring again in late March. We are grateful to the regulars, but they too are worried.

This year is different.

But what I am trying to get to, what the title of this entry alludes to, is that we haven't given up. We have always been a small, diverse group, too smart to take it sitting down. Several years ago we forged an unheard-of agreement with a local government to divert greenwaste from the landfills. We started the Pecan Shell Mulch craze 10 years ago; they used to pay to haul this stuff to the landfill. We were instrumental in getting the construction lumber recycling industry up and running in NM. Then we invented a program that collects foodwaste from local restaurants and hotels. This year we partnered loosely with a company that make wattles, or mulch socks, and services the NMDOT to help mitigate soil erosion on the side of our roads. In short, we have invented, time and again, necessary markets for organics diversion and re-use in NM.

In this dire economic crisis, we feel that we have come through once again. For the first time we are offering a mulch marketed as much for its price as its usefulness. We call it Blower Mulch because it was made originally for use by the large commercial blower trucks that spread thousands of cubic years at a time on hillsides and roadside. It is made of recycled construction lumber, namely dimensional lumber (2x4, 2x6, etc), pallets, crates, and plywood. It is not approved for use on certified organic gardens like our flagship material Premium Compost and other products. We process Blower Mulch much the same way we process many of our products: grind it to 2" and then screen it to 1/2"-1". It's a nice blond material, from a completely renewable resource, economical, and quite useful.


So where's the innovation? Well, granted it isn't on the same scale as starting the only Foodwaste Collection Service in the state, but it is innovative in several ways. Blower Mulch allows LEED construction companies to "close the loop" by using this mulch on it's finished landscapes. It represents a variation on our standard ideology of processing products as little as possible. It forces our customers to look at a product with an open mind; you are not going to find this mulch in the box stores. We have always had the most expensive product on the market; now we beat all private producers' prices for a comparable product.

So come on down and take a free sample home with you.

Finish mulching that 1/2 acre you're tired of weeding but couldn't afford to deal with properly. It's selling for $11/yd3 for the time being until we can all get back on our collective feet again.

Hope to see you soon.