At Purple Care, we want to help our customers reconnect to the earth. We highly recommend taking breaks from technology by spending time in your yard. Our team can help you create the perfect oasis in your yard where you can take a step back from your electronic devices and truly relax.

What Is Earthing?

Recent scientific studies show that the use of technology disturbs our electromagnetic fields. I don't want to get all "metaphysical" with it, but I think it’s a theory that is worth thinking about. This theory, called earthing, says that in order to rebalance our electromagnetic field, we require grounding. In order to perform grounding, we have to put our bodies in direct contact with the earth. This can be as simple as going barefoot, making a sandcastle, or planting. This helps us get reconnected to the earth. Considering what effects electronic devices might be having on you and your children, earthing might be quite beneficial.

Here at Purple Care, we support any efforts to get folks outside and away from their electronic devices. During the holidays this year, if you find your family staring at screens, get everyone outside. Go for a walk, take a hike, or do anything else that will allow you to get your hands dirty and reconnected with the earth.

Get Out!

Just how much time do we spend immersed in technology every day? Most of us have jobs that require us to spend most of our waking hours with technology. Technology then follows us home right into our bedrooms every night. Most of us keep our phones close to us when we sleep and are often awoken when our phones go off in the night. Many of us desire opportunities to unplug or fast from technology. Just recently, executives from Silicon Valley have started to go on dopamine fasts in order to help reset their minds and bodies. I agree that this is a good practice and I practice this on a small scale.

I love to travel with my family. I like to get out and explore the great outdoors and see as much of the United States as I can. I enjoy finding off-beat and remote places that enable me to go off the grid. In recent years, I have found two places that I recommend for when you are feeling the need to drop off the grid for a few days. My favorite places to visit include the Big Bend in the great state of Texas, or Chaco Canyon in New Mexico. These are the most remote places I have ever been. I drive for miles in the opposite direction of lights, cars, houses, and neighborhoods. As I drive, I see my cell phone signal fade slowly, one signal bar at a time. I think to myself “Yes, I did it! I am off the grid! I am sticking it to the man!" Technological silence. Only to climb up the top of a mesa or peak and my phone reconnects and hums back to life with all the notifications that I have missed out on. Only serving to remind myself that you really can't ever get away.

An Outdoor Oasis Will Help You Reconnect To The Earth

So, what does earthing, dopamine fasting, and traveling have to do with your soil? That's a great question! We believe in helping you create outdoor spaces at your home that help you reconnect to the earth. Creating a backyard oasis starts with soil. Without great soil, it is not possible to create an inviting space that encourages you and your family to unplug and get outside.

Soil Is A Natural Resource

Soil is full of life. It contains everything from microscopic organisms to earthworms. Soil is considered a natural resource. Natural resources are naturally occurring organic substances that aid life on earth in some way. When it comes to natural resources, we are all fans of clean air and clean water. Not one of us wants to have prolonged contact with polluted air or water. Too often we neglect our soil and take it for granted. Many of us have poor soil. We may be tempted to dig it all up, haul it away, and start over. If you have millions to blow and want to live with prolonged construction and a giant mess, I guess you should go for it. This is not realistic for most of us. The best solution is to amend what you have. To use the word soil in north Texas is an insult to many Panhandle farmers. The Panhandle has real soil and not a minefield of rocks. Our soil here is lacking in organic matter. For it to be healthy and beneficial to your yard and gardens, the best thing you can do is apply top dressing. When we topdress, we put living organisms back into the soil.

Give Your Soil Some Space

Since soil is alive, it requires oxygen. Oxygen helps create space in the soil and room for water and nutrients. Liquid and mechanical aeration help create openings in the soil allowing the soil to have much needed space. This helps keep the soil workable and usable. Think of potting soil. Potting soil is a great example of how our soil should be: light and fluffy. If your soil is rock hard, you need to aerate and add organic matter. If you find yourself too busy, let us help you. We will do the dirty work and get it done quickly. We can apply our proprietary, locally sourced, recycled product on your lawn to increase its fertility. The more organic matter you add to your soil, the better your plants will look in the summertime.

Budget

Now is the time to be planning your spring landscaping budget. Please consider applying topdressing to your turf. If you are unsure of the merits of topdressing, just call our office and arrange for me to personally visit your house with a bag of Purple Care topdressing. I will apply a free sample of our Purple Care topdressing to your turf, and then check back with you in three to four weeks to see if you can see a difference in your turf. If you do see the difference in your turf, you should consider allowing us to apply top dressing across your entire lawn.

Recycling Is What We Do

All good landscapers participate in the carbon cycle. See the attached diagram for a refresher. Carbon content is essential for soil life. Landscapers start by allowing the grass clippings to fall back into the lawn with each mowing. This provides a layer of green manure. This green manure acts as a natural fertilizer to help give your lawn a boost during its most active time. Secondly, we cut down and remove trees and bushes. We haul those away and keep them out of the landfill. We take them to a tub grinder that shreds them into bark mulches and the finer particles are used to supplement soil mixtures that will end up back in your flowerbeds and lawn. Future increasing the soil's fertility and water retention capabilities.

What's Happening With The Sun?

Throughout the fall and winter, the angle of the sun in the Northern Hemisphere is much greater and the days are shorter. Very little of the sun’s energy is reaching the soil. This helps our evaporation rates here in north Texas because the moisture in the soil is retained because of this. Therefore, you may have to dial back your irrigation systems as your yard and flowerbeds may get wet and soggy for longer periods of time. Plants don't grow at the same rate and many plants are in dormancy. Because of this, it is a great time to dig. The soil is soft and workable. This also makes for a great time to plant evergreen shrubs and almost every tree that will thrive in north Texas. See my fall planting post for more info. The soil conditions in fall are completely opposite of the conditions we find in July when the soil profile is rock hard, cracked, and dry as a bone. Building up the organic matter in your soil will help increase its ability to retain moisture for those stretches of drought we experience every year.

Next Steps

Get reconnected to the great outdoors. Get outside. Take your loved ones with you and make memories while you can. Put down your phone and look at people. Be fully engaged. Be present.

Determine areas in your turf and landscaping that seem to brown up first and dry out. Call us out and ask us to help develop a plan of attack. Make room in your budget for adding organic amendments to your soil before the heat of summer rolls in.

As you build organic matter in your soil, your landscaping will become an oasis from the outside world, enabling you to disconnect from technology in the comfort of your own space. You and your family will benefit from it. If you are not sure where to start, please give us a call and we can send an expert to your place that is fluent in reconnecting folks back to their landscaping.

Call (817) 880-6052 or contact us online to learn more about our landscaping services.