The feeling in the air is electric around the nursery when NaturesTurf™ starts shipping for the first time in the season. Our individual and collective investment of time and hard labour is finally taking shape. The mental gymnastics, nervousness, and daily anticipation of cultivating a living product slowly give way to a sense of fulfillment. The next critical step in what we’ve set out to do is now a reality. This unique living product is on its way to beautify urban spaces or naturalize hard-to-vegetate areas with stunning prairie or riparian grasslands.
When the product arrives on site, it’s eagerly greeted by installers, and often by the specifying landscape architect. We receive all sorts of feedback, but we wanted to address some of the most common reactions:
“Is everything looking okay?”
“Is this how it’s supposed to look?”
“Are you sure this is right?”
“Ummm, we might have a problem here...”
Because NaturesTurf™ is new and limited on the market, there isn’t yet widespread familiarity with how it looks when it first arrives. Most installers and landscape contractors are accustomed to laying traditional sod, which is lush, bright green, and nearly picture-perfect the moment it hits the ground. NaturesTurf™ doesn’t arrive like this. We like to say it’s still building its potential prairie purpose, whether on the big roll tube or as soon as it’s installed on site, there is activity happening in every square foot.
During the early days, NaturesTurf™ is rather tender. Each cut piece is held together by the intact root systems of the plants and biodegradable matting. Even if there isn’t much happening up top, there’s a lot going on deep in the substrate. This is actually the perfect time to cut and shape the strips for installation. The potential is building, and soon the area will be fully vegetated.
Native grasses and wildflowers have vastly different growth cycles and stratification requirements compared to non-native turf grasses. Depending on when a NaturesTurf™ plot was seeded relative to its shipping date, installers may notice some seemingly unusual bare spots. This is completely normal. Emergence in these areas will occur either later that season or early the next. The plants lurking in these sparser zones are simply following one of three natural growth patterns: creep, sleep, or leap. They will soon be full-fledge members of a very diverse native plant community.
NaturesTurf™ is shipped in a traditional “big roll” sod-like format. It takes a lot of heavy equipment to accurately harvest, carefully roll, and quickly load NaturesTurf™ onto an 18-wheeler to meet our customers’ timelines. Fortunately, NaturesTurf™ is not susceptible to the classic same-day nitrogen burn cycle like traditional sod. It arrives with a fully intact root system and is not in a state of decay as soon as it’s removed from the field. Of course, we still recommend prompt installation and a three-week watering-in period for best results, but the timeline isn’t nearly as urgent as with conventional sod. Any tall grasses that may have been pressed down during rolling or installation will pop back up over the next several days.
The responses to NaturesTurf™ has been beyond our expectations and we enjoy going on the journey with everyone. From specification, cultivation, harvesting and install, our native prairie on a roll has people talking, learning and loving plants.
Flash forward 2-3 weeks post install, and we are greeted with a whole new set of common reactions:
“Wow, everything rooted in so well, I’m blown away!”
“The grasses are standing tall and looking great!”
“This is amazing stuff.”
“I can't wait to see what this will look like next year."
In the months and years to follow, the magic continues to grow!
So, we want everyone to know: Yes, everything is absolutely okay. It might look a bit tender and sparse at the at the beginning, but there’s no problem, it’s 100% normal.
At EcoLogic Horticulture, we’re dedicated to delivering the best possible plant material in any format. From our plugs and #1 pots to our live native stakes and the wondrous NaturesTurf™, we only ship products we truly believe in.
