St Louis Lawn Care | Hansen's Tree Service

By now everyone has probably seen small bags of compost in their local garden centers & wondered to themselves “How in the world can I renovate my lawn with that??? I’d have to buy hundreds of bags!!” No need to wonder, Hansen’s has bulk compost and we are ready to deliver to your home or other location where you are trying to improve the soil. So no matter what amount of compost you are in need of – be it a small 5 gallon bucket full to try some on your potted plants, or you need a semi tractor trailer bulk compost delivery- we can handle your needs right here with one phone call.

There are several articles already on this website that list all of the features and benefits of compost. I hope that you will take time to read them. If you still have questions on our compost, mulch or tree questions, please phone us, there is someone here most of the time who can answer your questions and help to steer you in the right direction. Our lawn care manager Curtis Foster and his assistant Sara Meadows will be happy to explain how we use compost to renovate lawns so that you have no fear of that big pile of bulk compost that gets delivered when you hire us to aerate, overseed and then top-dress your lawn with compost. No- we are not going to bury your lawn in dirt! Let Sara & Curtis do their best to explain how a compost spreader works & how that fine layer of compost will work into those aeration cores and make your dirt and lawn so much better, stronger and drought resistant.

Check out our new video…

Buying organic compost isn’t just purchasing a truck load of manure anymore. Soil maintenance needs more than just manure. Maintaining healthy soil is at the heart of growing organic. I’ve heard it said “Feed the soil and the plants will take care of themselves”. That is a very true statment. Soil is extremely complex and far too technical to discuss in a short web article. The thing to remember is that eventually everything that lives will die and its substance returns to the soil to be recycled into new life. This is called Nature’s Law of Return. Compost is the ultimate soil food- it is how compacted, clay filled soils with little nutrient value can not only become restored but can maintain high levels of fertility.

I know it might sound overly simplistic to say that buying organic compost is your “first solution” to fixing soil problems but most of the time, it is! Have you got pests or diseases? Compost can fix that. Compacted clay soil? Compost can fix that. Not enough water or a drought? Compost can fix that as well as it greatly increases soils water holding capacity. They key is to find and buy good organic compost and work it into your soil.

Did you know that a single spade full of rich garden soil contains more species of organisms than can be found above ground in the entire Amazon rain forest? That’s what I learned when I watched “Dirt- The Movie” which everyone seriously needs to watch as you will be amazed! It won an award at the Sundance Film Festival for good reasons! Although soil appears quite solid, air moves freely in and out of it. The air in the upper 8 inches of well drained healthy soil is completly renewed every eight hours. (That fact you just read came from Soil Factoids at the US National Soil Survey Center).

If you are still questioning if you should spend money on buying organic compost and if it is really worth it, let me leave you with a very old quote
“Man’s work with Nature that furthers Nature’s aims is the work that rewards him the best.” (I- Ching)
I’m not about to argue that philosophy!

Buying compost has really never been easier. Think back five to ten years ago. The only compost you ever knew about was the stuff that some folks managed to make out of their scraps in bins in their backyards. Garden guides often refer to compost as “natures method” of recycling. Nature does a wonderful job of recycling but her time frame is that of eternity and most of us here on earth don’t have nearly that long to wait (or want to wait) for a beautiful lawn and garden!

What are you getting when you are buying compost? What’s in it? Do you know? And if you don’t, how can you find out? Anyone producing STA Certified compost (like the kind we make here at Hansen’s) must have their compost mixture tested on a regular basis and those test results need to fall into so pretty specific guidelines for nutrients. So the easy answer is when buying compost, check to see if it is indeed STA Certified.

If you are trying some composting at home or picking some up from the city in which you live – if they do composting- make sure to sniff the compost. What does it smell like? Is it sour smelling? Rank? Bitter or nasty smelling? If it is, it would be best to leave it alone. Compost should smell sweet and earthy, just like good soil. Composting is the natural way of recyling & harnessing a very natural process but it takes people who understand that process, to make good compost.