What does Top Dressing do?

Aguinaga's Top Dressings are designed to be used primarily as seed covers. In many applications these products can also be used as mulches, planting mediums and backfill amendments. The uniform particle size of these composted products will substantially enhance residual capabilities in the soil, and replenish organic matter levels. Aeration and drainage will be greatly enhanced and this creates yet another vital level of plant nutrition and stability.

Our Top Dressing products are available on request with Gypsum for soil aeration. A nutrient Package for balance application is also available.

Aguinaga's Forest Floor Mulch

With spring approaching, it's time to start thinking about our yards again. What can be used to aid in weed control and help with moisture retention in our gardens???

Aguinaga Green is the only manufacturer of Forest Floor Mulch. Our Forest Floor Mulch comes from shredded tree trimmings and plant material, which are native to the area. It is recycled, ground, and screened to a zero to four inches specification. Forest Floor Mulch has excellent moisture retention capabilities and aids in weed control. The organic levels are good and provide an excellent source of nutrients. This product is dark in color, has strong aesthetic appeal, and very residual. Call 1-877-OC-MULCH to order some cubic yards of Forest Floor Mulch. Remember, all of our products are STA Certified.

“Forest Floor” mulch and nutrients

Nitrogen is a nutrient - macro nutrient actually - and is part of chlorophyll; the green pigment in plants that is responsible for photosynthesis.

Photosynthesis is the process by which plants convert energy from the sun into starches and sugars - - which are foods to plants and to all growing things. Essentially, with the sun’s energy, the process takes carbon dioxide from the air and hydrogen and oxygen from water to do this.

Composting of “clean green” as is done at Aguinaga, puts nitrogen as well as other nutrients back into the system. When temperatures are too low, or when compost becomes anaerobic (lacking oxygen), or when there is no moisture present, nutrients can not multiply. And when compost becomes too hot, the nutrients are eliminated.

Trademarked “Forest Floor” composted mulches made by Aguinaga, are carefully processed to assure a maximum benefit for you in your gardens.

We Walk the Talk

We talk about being conscious and cautious with our environment.

We do not by any means let up on ourselves in this regard... and internally we remain very careful ourselves, in maintaining control over our facilities.

Shown here is one of our settling ponds, where excess rain water is contained rather than being allowed to run uncontrolled.

It's hot at one thirty

It takes over one hundred thirty degrees to kill seeds and pathogens that are present, even in "Clean Green" compost material.
The other components also required for the task are moisture as well as oxygen.
In order to maintain our STA certification and properly compost our products, we check temperature consistently to assure compliance with this minimum temperature required.

By rolling and spreading our windrows forward, then again reconstructing them into another windrow oxygen is added, which stops the material from becoming anaerobic, and promotes the microbial action that is generating the heat.

Controlling Temperature

So, what’s all the fuss about temperature in the compost??

Unlike many competitors, Aguinaga controls the temperature in our compost to assure it reaches a minimum of 131 degrees F.

Why is this important? Because, only at high temperatures all seeds and pathogens are eliminated.

Seeds, we all know about. The word pathogen comes from the Greek pathos (suffering, passion”) and gignomai “I give birth to” - - so what we have here is an infectious agent that causes disease to it’s host.

So why is Aguinaga any concern over this Greek stuff?

The key: SOIL CONTAMINATION has the longest or most potential for harboring a pathogen !!! And pathogens are responsible for the transmission of communicable disease. They are generally bacteria, viruses and parasites, such as worms, amoeabae or protozoa that invade the body and cause illness in a variety of forms.

Hundreds of pathogen have high enough survival rates they can live in an aerobic – or oxygen prevalent – environment, like compost.

That is why we daily measure the temperature of our composting piles to both to maintain or STA status and to assure that you have a great looking but dormant mulch, in your garden. And also why we absolutely do not understand why anyone would put composted biosolid waste such is available in our area, in theirs!

“Clean Green” is not just anything green

If you have ever tried to compost at your home, even inadvertently by leaving a pile or canister of grass for a week after cutting the lawn, you will notice something very obvious: THE SMELL.

The smell; hydrogen sulfide which smells like rotten eggs and is one of the more offensive odors to human beings and is caused by the grass clumping together because of it’s base structure and becoming anaerobic – or lacking in oxygen.

Grass also tends to be nitrogen rich, and once again can pose problems in this regard if large clumps of grass become anaerobic - the resulting odor produced in this case is ammonia; another of the odors quite offensive to us.

By contrast, if you visit the Aguinaga site in beautiful Baker Canyon, California and wander amongst thousands of yards of composting material you will find only a woodsy/outdoors rather pleasant odor, as unlike many competitors, we do not allow grass or any other curbside waste into our composting raw material stream.

Much harder to control? Yes! But you enjoy the results when our product is used in and around your home.