Why I Oughta...

Last week, I posted the details and photos of the first late-winter application of municipal biosolids in our garden and talked about how I was going to try to find some time to head to the mulch pit to get a few loads before gardening season heats up.  I applied that initial load to some areas that needed the soil amendment including the Spring Grove Ginkgos, the epimedium colony and my Hellebores.   I mentioned (in that post) that for every spot that I dumped a bucket of biosolids, I spotted 2x more spots that could use a top-dressing.  Not to mention the lawn, the parkway and the compost bins.   Over the weekend, I ran out and picked up another load.   About 8 five-gallon buckets filled up 2/3rds-of-the way.  And dumped and spread out around the backyard.   I added another partial-bucket under the Linden trees: And, right at the base of my bird feeder pole: At regular intervals along the front of the south border: Around the trunk of the south-side Northern Red Oak tree went a coup

Late last Fall, I found some time to head over to the mulch pit to pick up a couple of loads (in 5 gallon buckets) of municipal biosolids and brought them home.  I dumped the biosolids out and scattered them across a number of the perennial beds in the front/back/side yards .  A top dressing of sorts.   And a dormant application of organic material with the goal of improving the soil conditions.  I also thought that by applying them in early Winter/late Fall...there would be ample time for them to 'age in place' during the dormant period.  With the return to the garden in the past few weeks to begin to prune back/remove old stems and lightly begin to clean up, I've noticed some areas where the naked soil is 'showing'.  What can fix that?  Mulch!  Oh...I guess that's true.  But, I also thought...biosolids could do the trick.  And...off I went to pick up a load.  Here, below, are a few spots where I spread the material out.  I think I have 8 five-gallon buckets. 

I've used biosolids (municipal biosolids from Downers Grove) in various ways over the years on our property - topdressing of my lawn in spots, as an amendment and accelerant in our compost bins , as a vertical mulch to try to improve the soil/clay conditions in my front porch bed (along with leaf litter) , as a soil/perennial bed amendment with stump grindings to attempt to balance the nitrogen loss , as a little boost when planting new shrubs like the SnowQueen Oakleaf Hydrangeas and most recently as both soil cover and hole-filler in the newly extended IB2DWS bed area with my new dwarf conifer garden and new (to me) flowers.   This year, I'm going to be using them in a few (new to me) additional ways:  first, as a dormant application on top of my beds.  This Fall, I blew most of the leaves out of my beds and chopped them up with the mower.   I then blew some of those chopped leaves back into the beds and left plenty of small pieces in the lawn.   Think of this as...sort-of.

Having used biosolids to topdress the front parkway and a little bit of my lawn out front, I have now moved on to adding a bit of this organic material to our backyard.  This comes after I used the Downers Grove municipal biosolids in vertical mulching and by adding a little bit to our compost bin.   I've gone back-and-forth on whether (or not) to order a 3 yard delivery of biosolids, but in the meantime I've been going over to the pick-up station and filling 12 gallons-or-so of the material to use a little bit at a time.   As for the backyard, here's a few photos showing how I started with 10 gallons of biosolids as a soil amendment.   Below, you can see the 2 buckets and the trug - as well as the rake I use to spread it around.  I take each bucket and walk around and sort-of 'drizzle' the biosolids out.  You can see how that gets applied in the second photo below.  This is when I use that metal rake to pull it out of the piles and spread it a bit more to help it b

Spring seems like the season of biosolids-application posts and today is no different.  Last week, I posted a series of photos showing my use of biosolids in the parkway.  And, then I talked about how I was going to use biosolids in a vertical-mulching application to try to help remedy by clay soil problem by our front porch.  In that post, I referenced how I added organic material to the stump grindings to help the Triumph Elm tree thrive.   As another step towards helping these stump grindings  breakdown, I threw five gallons of biosolids on top of them - right next to the new tree - where some tulips are coming up.  You can see that in the photo below.  I didn't work them in the ground, but, as I keep up with the 'vertical mulching', I'll likely add even more surface biosolids like this batch below. The combination of organic material (and nitrogen) are going to be critical to making this bed a desirable place for plants and shrubs in 2023.  At least....that's w

This is day three and post number three of spreading municipal biosolids on our parkway turf in early March - as both a slow-release fertilizer and a soil amendment.    Over the weekend, I started by picking up and dumping about 12 gallons of granular (or close to granular) biosolids from the Downers Grove Sanitary District on our parkway .  They have a station across town where you can scoop-up and take-home your own batches of biosolids.  I say (close to granular) because it has more of a topsoil consistency than a true granular fertilizer or commercial biosolids product like Milorganite.   Yesterday, I posted a photo showing the application of even more biosolids to the parkway section across our driveway .   Today is showing the addition of 12-or-so more gallons to the main parkway.  My first application went down by the street.  This one was dumped closer to the sidewalk.  See below for photos showing the material dumped out followed by photos showing it after being raked in.  Pos

A couple of weeks ago, I spread 5 gallons of biosolids on a rectangle of turf in our backyard.  Here's that post .  Today if you look out there, the grass is, ummm, different.  It is different than any of the reset of the grass in our yard.  It is deeper green and has taller growth than any other section of grass in our entire backyard.  If you look at the photo at the top, you can see the arker area that runs from top to bottom, right?  A couple of weeks in and you can still see the material that is in large chunks, but some of it has made its way into the thatch.  I was out there on a day that it had rained and it seemed that the original smell from the biosolids was invigorated a bit. That's a downside of topdressing with biosolids.  But, the upside?  It is visible in this photo - clear as day.  With that smell and our kids being heavy users of our yard during the Spring and Summer, I'm wondering if Fall is the best time to consider topdressing with biosolids.  It