How Our Ottawa Sprinkler Systems Can Fix Your Soil

Before you start your plans for your beautiful, lush, green lawn this summer, take the time to think of its foundation: the soil.  Improving your soil can do wonders for enhancing your lawn’s beauty and success.  And installing our Ottawa sprinkler systems can exponentially improve the quality of not only your soil, but your entire landscape – we’ll tell you exactly how.

Let’s start with the basics. 

What type of soil is the foundation of your Ottawa lawn?
If you look at soil, it basically has 3 layers:

• The bottom layer isn’t soil, but decomposed rock.
• The middle layer holds some moisture, but isn’t very fertile soil.
• The top layer is where the organic material and activity occurs. 

Depending on your location in Ottawa, your soil may have some of these soil types listed here (from youngest to oldest):

• Fill Materials: these are part of the youngest part of the soil and consist of soil manually moved from their natural location to another location.
• Organic Soils: made from the decomposition of vegetation.  This is commonly referred to as topsoil, peat etc.
• Sandy Soils: like it sounds, this is soil made from sand deposits.  This can be found around the Ottawa airport site and along the beaches of the Ottawa River. 
• Sensitive Silty Clay: made from a flood occurring in Ontario thousands of years ago, the result was thick deposits of silty clay that has oxidized to become a dry and stiff crust. 
• Glacial Till: made from the melting glaciers, glacial till is made from soil and rock that were deposited as the glaciers melted.  This will consist of a variety of sized particles.
• Bedrock: there are two types of bedrock in the Ottawa area: granite and sedimentary rocks.  Granite can be found in the Gatineau Hills and in the City of Ottawa.

Some areas of Ottawa, such as the downtown area, have very little soil cover and are primarily composed of bedrock.   So before you begin your sprinkler systems plan, it is important to understand what soil your lawn has. 

Your lawn and our Ottawa sprinkler systems: An ideal pairing for your soil
Can your soil be improved?  It’s a near-universal fact that almost all soils can and should be improved for optimum performance.

Regardless of the type of soil, your grass roots need moisture and air to live.  Moisture has the role of dissolving the required nutrients for the root system to absorb.  Air prevents the roots from drowning in that water.  Air is not a factor you can play with too much; however, the factor of moisture can affect your soil in three ways:

• How the soil absorbs water
• How the soil stores moisture
• How quickly the water is lost or used.

If your soil doesn’t absorb water very well or hangs on to it for too long, it can be a sign of compaction, poor organic matter in the soil, or clay soil.  In this case, you will want to install our Ottawa sprinkler systems to give the soil a steady source of moisture.  In addition, a core aeration treatment can alleviate any compaction issues, while adding some healthy topsoil can improve organic content in the soil, as well as its quality.

If your soil has issues with retaining, a slightly different course will need to be taken.  Start with regular watering from our irrigation systems to keep your plants from dehydrating.  Then you should focus on improving moisture storage, such as better organic matter.  If water evaporates too fast, apply a ground cover of mulch as a preventative strategy. 

To get started on your Ottawa sprinkler systems, visit our Contact page to request a free quote! You can trust Nutri-Lawn for all your irrigation needs.