Landscaping – Hardscaping – Snow Management
10687 Midland Boulevard
St. Louis, MO 63114
Mon-Fri: 07:30 - 5:00
20 Aug 2015

Composting Services in St. Louis

“Fall” Into Composting…

greenFall is the perfect time to compost in addition to aerating, seeding, and fertilizing.

Composting is nature’s way of recycling. For thousands of year, ecosystems have survived and thrived by self-producing compost from spent plant material. Compost contains essential nutrients and moisture that help plants and lawns grow by:

  • Improving the structure, drainage and water –holding capacity of soil
  • Encouraging deep-rooting
  • Helping to suppress plant disease, and
  • Reducing erosion

West County Gardens has been operating a recycling facility for all the waste we collect for over 15 years at our 4.5 acre location on Midland near Lindbergh.

All yard waste material is brought into our facility and separated. Plastic pots are donated to a local recycler. Brick, stone, concrete, and dirty soil are used as ‘fill material’. Brush, logs, and chipper chips are run through a Tub Grinder (blender) once a year creating a compost material. It is piled and sits for 12-18 months. After that time, it is then turned, replied and sits again for another 12-18 months. Finally, it is turned one last time and moved to our outgoing compost bin to be used as soil amendment.

West County Gardens is doing our best on a daily basis to maximize the recycling effort and reduce the amount of trash and debris dumped in landfills.

Check out this page to see the advantages of using Black Gold Compost.

If you are interested in our composting service, please do not hesitate to contact us at (314) 423-9244. We are happy to assist you with any of your landscaping needs.

Happy recycling to all of you…

19 Aug 2015

THE TIME IS NOW TO AERATE, FERTILIZE, AND SEED FOR A HEALTHIER LAWN!

THE TIME IS NOW TO AERATE, FERTILIZE, AND SEED FOR A HEALTHIER LAWN!

Aeration has many benefits for your lawn and is one of the most important cultural practices that you can possibly do for you lawn. Core aeration is the most common form of aeration that we do for lawns.

The benefits include:

  • Improvement of drainage
  • Increases air, water, and nutrients to the roots
  • Helps relieve soil compaction
  • Stimulates new growth
  • Decreases thatch build up
  • During drought conditions, aeration helps water reach thirsty roots
  • Creates a better environment for overseeding
  • Increases the effectiveness of applied fertilizers

What time of the year is best to aerate? Fall is the best time because it can be combined with seeding. You can aerate in the Spring but it would need to be done before pre-emergent is applied for crabgrass.

Experts say you should have at least 9 holes per square foot and in some clay soils 18 holes per square foot. In order to accomplish this, you may have to make several passes with a drum style aerator. If you have a mechanical or reciprocating aerator, you can pull enough cores in one pass to be sufficient. I don’t think you can aerate your lawn too much in the fall. The more cores you pull, the better. You can turn a lawn into nothing but cores and it will recover and be better than before in a couple weeks. The cores dissolve over the course of a few weeks with watering and rainfall. I recommend mowing after aeration to also help break up the cores. The soil that is pulled during this aeration process will also help reduce thatch.

When should I seed? Seeding is best to do at the same time as aeration (as mentioned above). The reason for this is after aeration the seed that falls into the holes (Fescue or Rye grass primarily) can germinate and help fill in the bare areas. For large bare areas in your lawn, we recommend using a slit seeder with a seed box or broadcast the seed using a power rake that has solid knives to cut slices through the thatch into the soil. This will further open up the thatch and allow the seed to fall in the slits and up in rows.

Once the bare areas in your lawn are seeded, you will need to keep it moist by watering so that the seed can germinate. This can take 7-21 days depending on the type of seed you use.

In conjunction with aeration and seeding, now is the time to apply a fall fertilizer to help your lawn start to recover from the summer heat and disease activity.

If you need assistance with aeration, seeding, or fertilizing, please do not hesitate to give us a call at (314) 423-9244. We look forward to showing you a beautiful lawn in the Spring by preparing in the Fall.

29 Apr 2015

St. Louis Watering Schedule for Summer 2015

St. Louis Watering Schedule for Summer 2015

St. Louis Watering ScheduleSo far 2015, has been quite different from last year’s drought. We’ve had cooler than normal temperatures in July. Even though the temperatures aren’t as high as we are used to for Missouri, it is best to still water your turf and plants.

We recommend watering three (3) times a week at least. Plant should be watered in the evening and turf should be watered in the early morning. Preferrably around 1:00 a.m.

If you have any questions about your lawn or plants, please contact Andy at (314) 423-9244.

Thanks and happy watering!

If you or someone you know is looking for help with your flower bed maintenance, Spring bed mulching, composting, or leaf removal the professionals at West County Gardens can help. They specialize in spraying & feeding of shrubs and trees, turf fertilization, lawn mowing, turf maintenance! Call West County Gardens today at (314) 423-9244 or email them at westcountygardens@yahoo.com to see what bed maintenance program works best for you.

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