By P.J. HELLER Matt Smith wonders what he would be doing today if his company wasn’t selling colored mulch. “I’d probably not still be in the mulch business,” says Smith, chief executive officer of Smith Creek, Inc., in Borden, IN. Smith Creek got into the wholesale colored mulch business in the late 1990s and today its bagged colored mulch outsells …
By P.J. Heller Matt Smith wonders what he would be doing today if his company wasn’t selling colored mulch. “I’d probably not still be in the mulch business,” says Smith, chief executive officer of Smith Creek, Inc., in Borden, IN. Smith Creek got into the wholesale colored mulch business in the late 1990s and today its bagged colored mulch outsells …
By Robert LaGasse, Executive Director Capitol Hill Visit While Hours of Service (HOS) regulations have been an issue in recent years, the introduction of Electronic Logging Device (ELD) regulations last December has caused a major fire storm in the trucking industry. Under the new ELD regulations, the HOS were reduced from 14 hours in service and a maximum of 11 …
By Ken McEntee For almost 40 years, Hardwood Mulch Corp., located about 35 miles southeast of Richmond, Va., hauled loads of wood mulch to a loyal customer in Maryland. That ended this year because of new interstate trucking regulations that mandate the use of electronic logging devices (ELDs) to monitor a driver’s hours of service, said Garland Anderson, owner of …
By P.J. Heller Substituting various amounts of biochar for peat moss in greenhouse and nursery growing applications – including the total elimination of peat from the potting substrate and replacing it with biochar – resulted in similar plant growth, according to a recent study. “Biochar is a promising substitute for peat . . .” researchers reported. The study, conducted at …
By Gail Barnes Soil is more than brown dirt. It is a living breathing system, and like any living system can become unhealthy and susceptible to pests and disease. That’s where beneficial bacteria – or good bugs known as probiotics – come in. They restore balance in the soil, and in doing so, can enhance plant and soil health. We …
By Ken McEntee In theory, expanding a mulch producing operation into compost production sounds like an ideal way to add an additional revenue stream. Unfortunately, say some people in the mulch business, the complications of permitting and the expense of purchasing composting equipment often can make compost production more trouble than it’s worth. Others, however, say that restricting feedstock to …
By P.J. Heller Massive amounts of wood waste generated by Hurricane Irma in Florida — from trees and branches to damaged or destroyed homes, buildings and other structures — is continuing to make its way to landfills and waste-to-energy plants throughout the Sunshine State months after the storm ravaged much of southwest Florida. Only a small amount of the felled …
By P.J. Heller When the Eastman Kodak Company introduced Kodachrome film in 1935, it changed the way the people worldwide looked at films and images, from a black-and-white view to a palette of vivid colors. A similar eye-popping experience occurred in 1954 with the introduction of color television. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the outdoors began taking on …
By Bob LaGasse, MSC Executive Director For years, local fire marshals have been promoting the urban myth of spontaneous combustion of mulch in home gardens and landscape applications. In 2016 we saw a significant increase in the number of reports of local mulch fires, particularly in landscapes around businesses where the cause was attributed to improper disposal of smoking materials, …
