TGU Blog
TGU Blog is an archive of informative posts relating to landscaping, gardening, composting and any information we find may be useful to our readers and consumers.
Mark Bowen joined TGU on Monday, September 17th and will be managing accounts in a Sr. capacity as well as working with our production team in Quality Control and working with Luis Chamorro in the product development.
TGU is very excited to welcome Mark to our family. If you would like to contact Mark:
email: mark.bowen@thegroundup.com & Cell: 281-381-1259
It’s a given that artificial turf can provide a practical classic lawn. However, if your heart is set on more modern landscape design, have no fear artificial turf can make those cutting-edge dreams come true!
1. Creating Unique Designs
For instance, you might want to create an interesting path or design with stone but don’t want the hassle of maintaining a certain grass length to achieve the design.
Artificial turf can be the perfect solution! The feasibility of how it can be cut and shaped allows for someone with a strong creative side to go wild!
2. Who Says Grass Can’t Be Inside?
The great thing about using artificial turf there’s literally no limit on where and how it can be used. For instance, whose to say synthetic grass can only be used outdoors?
Look how this room was transformed to the ultimate man cave with the use of artificial turf. Not only will it make you feel you're on the playing field but its a quick clean up when someone inevitably spills the chips and salsa.
3. Artificial Turf Meets Modern Art
Do you find yourself wishing your home could be as aesthetically pleasing as the art hanging on your walls?
Using such versatile material such as artificial turf can make that dream into a reality. Not only can artificial turf be cut into any shape or length, you don’t have to patiently wait for your material to grow. So the next time you’re at your favorite museum don’t be surprised if inspiration strikes for your next garden project!
4. Artificial Turf Pool Side
Are you tired of having to run out of the pool because of the burning concrete? Artificial turf has the perfect solution that will have your feet thanking you and your neighbor envious of your modern approach.
Artificial turf can brighten up any area in your home especially your pool deck. It's durable nature makes it perfect for heavy foot traffic and won't get ruined by excess water.
5. City Life Craving the Country
Have you moved into the city but are yearning for the greenery of the country? Don’t fret artificial turf can easily transform any dull and dreary space in your provincial oasis.
This will not only bring a pop of color to your home but a boost to your lifestyle. Forget the frustration of maintaining and creating a natural garden. Now you will be able to provide an outdoor space perfect for entertaining without the hassle.
WRITTEN BY
Erika Simmonds
In celebration of International Compost Awareness Week, I invite our readers to dig a little deeper into the many benefits of utilizing compost.
In a nutshell all composting is, is just nature’s way of recycling. It is a natural process of breaking down organic matter and turning it back into a rich nourishing substance. With this comes a lot of nutrition and benefits for your landscaping and gardening. Microorganisms produce a rich earthy substance called humus that is the key component in producing fine compost. Though most people think that compost is a fertilizer, it is actually a soil amendment. Fertilizers add nutrients to soil; while amendments improve the soil so that plants can make use of those nutrients. A simple way to distinguish the two is to remember that compost feeds the soil and fertilizer feeds the plant.
We celebrated this week by releasing our new "My Organic Compost DS" bag design. This double screened goodness will be available to you in a few weeks at any of our locations. We love it and we know you will too.
DS is made from leaf mold, wood, vegetative debris. We ground up the raw materials and make windrow piles by folding fruits and veggies into the piles. The juices from the fruits and veggie keep the compost with an optimum moisture content during the composting process. In addtion, we also populate the piles with a microbe pack that allows for better composting. The piles then are turned and once the pile is mature and ready for processing, we screen a 1st batch with a 3/8" screen. This product is now called Vegan Compost. The following step is to take batches of Vegan Compost and screen again. For every yard of Vegan Compost we double screen we get 60% of Finished DS product.
Our compost DS is probably one of the finest fungal compost products you will see anywhere in the US. It's perfect for top dressing, amending, tilling, mulching, spot treating and as a general use compost.
Spread about a half-inch to an inch of compost around your trees, shrubs, and/or your lawn, and in your annuals and vegetable gardens. In established gardens, spread the compost on top of the soil, where it will eventually seep into the ground below; or you can lightly fork it over. This can help improve the first 6–10 inches.
Questions about our Compost DS or just compost in general? Head on over to www.thegroundup.com/askusanything and ask away! We are happy to answer any questions you may have. If you'd like to see samples of our Compost DS, please visit one of our locations and we will show you this goodness packaged in a 1 cubic footbag!
The term mycorrhiza refers to the role of the fungi in the plants' rhizosphere, its root system. (Illustration by Michael Rothman)
A Mycorrhiza is a symbiotic association between a fungus and the roots of a vascular host plant. It's major function being the ability to exchange nutrients between their surroundings and their host plant. A white fungal network called hyphae (resembles roots) is the principal structure for the uptake of many important nutrients in the plant kingdom. The hyphae are only a single cell wide and facilitate nutrient exchanges between the root tip and fungi. While you may see them spread like a web surfacing a decomposing log, they usually remain hidden underground and invisible to us.
As a gardener, you want to take advantage of this symbiotic relationship that fungi and plants have been developing for millions of years. The key lies in maintaining a healthy community of fungi. One trick is to use caution when dealing with fertilizers and stray away from the use of chemical fertilizers specifically those consisting of phosphorus. Since phosphorus can reach levels that actually discourage the formation of mycorrhizae, avoiding fertilizers with high percentages of the chemical will prevent beneficial microbes from weakening or breaking apart. You can also maintain your soil in prime condition by minimizing disturbances apart from occasional light tilling, weeding and mulching.
One of your main challenges perhaps will be ensuring that this nutrient-infused goodness survives all year round. The fungi that support garden crops are not capable of living or reproducing independently so it is up to us gardeners to ensure we are maintaining and increasing the population of beneficial fungi.
We can start by preventing a decline with simple tricks such as rotating crops within your beds and avoiding empty beds by keeping plants growing at all times. Additionally, you want to take it a step further and consider growing plant rye, oats or hairy vetch. These plants have extensive root systems and readily harbor mycorrhizae. Orchards will serve you well for overwintering fungi because they don't require as much attention and buffer strips of a grass-and-legume blend will help retain fungi.
Mycorrhizae are the principal structures for the most nutrient uptake in the plant kingdom.
Are you familiar with Mycorrhizal Fungi? Tricks of your own? What has been your experience? We want to hear all about it! Shoot us your comments below!
A few days ago I received a call from a friend asking for advice. My friend asked if I could come to his house to check out the mulch he purchased over the weekend at a box store. Knowing my friend likely got carried away by the "BIG" discount, I packed my bag with a sample of our double shredded hardwood mulch and made my way to his home. Upon my arrival I couldn't believe what I was looking at. I was in shock and disbelief that my friend had taken the time and effort to put this mulch down. He only spread a few bags of this mulch, but when I pulled my sample out of my backpack I could see the reaction of defeat in his face. Maybe the reaction wasn't defeat but better described as embarrassment.
If you are waiting for me to get to the punchline of this post, wait no more. Here it goes:
Mulches are made many different ways. They can be natural, dyed, made from shells, rubber, wood, lava, and different types of trees, barks, and organic and non-organic materials.
The ultimate goal of a mulch product is to feed, protect and beautify. You may opt to leave 2 of the 3 goals out and just beautify or you may want to protect and beautify. The reality is: If you are able to feed, you are also protecting and beautifying BUT if you are only beautifying then you are not feeding and you are likely missing the protection component.
If we compare apples to apples on brown mulch readily available in the market and look at all these physical characteristics and more specifically look at TGU's bulk hardwood mulch or TGU's The Seasons Hardwood mulch in bags VS the BROWN mulch sold at the big box store, this is what we get...... for pics and video visit www.facebook.com/thegroundup
TGU Hardwood Mulch: Composted vegetative waste, shredded once and composted then shredded a second time with a 1.5" screen. Small shred with composted fines that will ultimately incorporate into the soil system of your landscape.
VS Brown Mulch: Dyed wood with shred ranging between 1" to 6", lacking compost and missing the ability to break down and incorporate into your landscape's soil system. An all carbon product that will likely create a deficient environment for your plants and creates a nitrogen deficiency and does not allow for nutrient uptake of any root.
Why go through the hassle right? Find TGU's The Seasons at an Independent Garden Center - for a list of local businesses carrying TGU products visit http://thegroundup.com/retail/
The Ground Up is a Houston, TX based compost, soil, and mulch manufacturer. The Ground Up also serves the wholesale and retail market with 3 Houston area nurseries.
The Ground Up also manufactures packaged mulches and soils.
Mulch, soils, compost, vegan compost, organic compost, organic mulch, organic soil, rose soil, veggie soil, light weight soil, enriched top soil, pine bark, Pinestraw bales, native hardwood mulch, black mulch, red mulch, cedar mulch, forest floor compost, leaf mold compost, expanded shale, gravel, sand, base materials, trees, flowers, seasonal color, shrubs, groundcover, citrus soil, citrus plants, palms, bamboo, & more.
The Ground Up | 19102 FM 1093 Rd., Richmond, TX 77407, United States