The 3 pillars of healthy soils are: Texture, Nutrition, and Life. Each pillar must be addressed to help your garden and landscape truly flourish. See our Glossary for more terminology.
Soil Texture
Soil Nutrition
Soil Life
When all 3 pillars are optimized, your soils and plants will work in harmony, creating the healthiest landscape you've ever seen.
Soil Texture
Soil texture refers to the ratio of sand, silt, and clay in your soil. Each component plays a vital role: sand helps with drainage, clay retains moisture, and silt holds onto nutrients. The ideal balance of these three—known as loamy soil—creates the perfect environment for lawns and landscape plants to flourish.
Soil Nutrition
Soil nutrition refers to the available "food" that supports plant growth. To thrive, plants need a proper balance of 17 essential nutrients. Among these, three—nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K)—are considered macronutrients because they are required in the largest amounts. Many conventional fertilizers focus only on these three, often overlooking the remaining 14 micronutrients that are just as important for plant health. Our program uses premium organic fertilizers to ensure your lawn and plants receive all of the nutrients, not just the top three.
It might be helpful to think of your soil like the refrigerator in your kitchen — both are places to hold nutrients. If you want to know what's missing from your refrigerator, open it up and look inside. The same can be done for your soil. That's why we always start with a Soil Test to see what’s inside your soil’s "refrigerator" and create a plan to stock it with the right nutrients for a healthy, thriving landscape.
Soil Life
Soil Life refers to the biology or the probiotics in the soil. This microbial activity breaks down nutrients in the soil for plants to use and also serves as a plant’s immune system. These hardworking microorganisms ward off plant diseases by forming a protective biological film around the root hairs of plants. Nutrients can get in while invading viruses and diseases stay out.
For lawn and plants, we brew our own probiotic tea, FertileTea, to add life to your soil. We can apply this tea 6 times a year to the lawn and/or landscape beds on your property. Our FertileTea is teeming not only with beneficial microorganisms, it also includes nutrients such as sea kelp, hydrolyzed fish, micronutrients and trace elements, mycorrhizal fungi, or humic/fulvic acids. By suspending these nutrients in a liquid, we deliver them right to the root zone where they are quickly absorbed. Hence the name FertileTea, since it is more than just a fabulous worm castings tea.
Learn about your soil's health and schedule a Soil Test with us. We’re eager for you to see the results!
