Weeds

By a VERY informal poll, all of you are sick and tired of pulling weeds for past three months. The rain is great but I know that, in the far reaches of my brain, I curse ever so slightly the rain because of all the inevitable weed sprouts.

I have been trying for years to document the power of mulch in terms of weed control. I have 5" or more of mulch throughout my property. Where the mulch is undisturbed, I have zero weeds; where the mulch is mixed with soil, the weeds have taken hold, but are really easy to pull because the roots are in the friable mulch; where there is no mulch, the weeds are strong and impossible to pull from the compacted soil. It really is significant enough to warrant consideration, but I weed in the morning before the sun rises so photos don't really come out well.

In the course of conversation with customers, I finally got one long time customer to send me a picture of her garden.



This picture is an excellent example of what a layer of organics can do to ease weed ills. Obviously, on the left of the path, no treatment. But on the right, she says "On the right, I mulched as follows 3-years prior to this photo: 1-2 layers of cardboard + 1" of Soilutions compost + 2" of Soilutions wood chips."

At home, I have started using the weeds as an organic layer, i.e., instead of cardboard. So I pull the weeds, lay them flat, cover them with mulch. That way I save room in my truck for the bulkier branches.


Pretty convincing. Thanks for the photo.

Products Price Changes

Thank you to all who have supported us in 2009. The preliminary numbers show that we will be able to continue to serve you with are fine garden products and seemingly expert knowledge for another year.

Unfortunately, we find it necessary to raise our selling prices on products this year. Most notably, for the first time in our 13+ years, we are raising the price on our Premium Compost from $32/yd to $36/yd. Costs to manufacture have just gotten to too high. Please check our other price changes on this website or give me a call.

When we first started, we were selling Premium at $14/yd when, after a brief calculation, it was costing us $20/yd to make! Since then we have concentrated on lowering our costs so that the price would remain constant for our customers. But, as I said, the cost of diesel, property taxes, compliance costs, insurance, and the ever important labor costs have increases too dramatically over the recent past.

Please note that tipping fees will remain at the ridiculously low rate of $5/yd. Usually, the recycling aspect of our company shares the costs with the manufacturing side, but we didn't feel it was fair to you in this continuing tight economic climate to raise those fees.

We look forward to seeing you all soon, and thanks for your support.