Renewed Earth has built its business on bringing to market soils which offer the best value for professional growers, landscapers and home owners.
In 2018 Renewed Earth produced unique soil mixes for more than 70 nurseries. These nurseries used their soil mix to grow 6 million new container grown perennial plants. In addition to the nurseries we provided soil to 6 leading horticultural universities for hands-on classroom experiments and for specific research projects.
You can be assured the same care which goes into producing our professional soil mixes also goes into production of our landscaping soil blends. The formulations of the professional soil-less growing media are different than the landscaping soil, but the care in selection of raw materials, recipe formulation, and actual processing techniques are very similar.
Our horticulturalist, Todd Herrick, enjoys walking nursery crops with our grower clients. Factors which effect plant growth performance such as soil, nutrients, and specific grower practices are often reviewed to improve crops and reduce costs for our valued grower clients.
These growers put an incredible effort into quickly producing healthy plants which are distributed through traditional garden centers and also through large national chain stores. The growers put every effort into ensuring the plant receives what it needs right up until the time it is no longer their responsibility. One of the weaknesses which concern Todd and many of these growers is the conditions which the plants are subjected to once they leave the retailer.
"Renewed Earth is actively engaged educating the professional landscape community about the importance of using good planting soil. We do this by leading professional development seminars and assisting government agencies and landscape architects with developing practical soil specifications. We feel this is especially important as like many industries, the green industry is under a lot of pressure to keep landscape construction costs down wherever possible."
Todd addresses much of this with the following:
“Modern landscape plants are increasingly faced with establishment on sites having soils with suboptimal physical and chemical characteristics. Improving soil structure and remediation with high quality fill soils ensures that a wide palette of plant material can be successfully utilized. Ultimately, however, specifications for fill soils must realistically balance cost pressures with site limitations.
For example, native Michigan soils commonly contain low organic matter levels and high pH. Of the two, organic matter is more easily modified, yet the organic source in fill soils can have a profound influence on plant health and vigor. While cheap and plentiful, wood residues should never be utilized to elevate organic content. They not only induce severe nutritional demands and imbalances on establishing plants, they also promote fungal growth (mushrooms). A stable, weed free compost is the most desirable organic source, simultaneously capable of improving soil structure, boosting the nutritional profile and reestablishing a healthy micro flora.
Overcoming high pH is a more challenging proposition, and suppliers of high quality fill soils recognize that few non-chemical amendments are effective in sustained reduction of pH. Nowhere is the relationship between cost and practicality more direct, since incorporation of peat moss and/or composted pine barks are often the only practical options.
Landscape specifications developed with a common sense approach recognize that “ideals” are site specific and fall within the framework of tight budgets. Renewed Earth takes an active role in working with customers to formulate soils whose specifications ensure long term sustainability while acknowledging budget pressures."
Todd Herrick
Grower Support Services