Hydroseeding in Missouri Valley, IA

Hydroseeding in Missouri Valley works with the Loess Hills of Harrison County. The town, named for the valley of the Missouri River, lies within Iowa's Loess Hills, and some of the tallest hills in the chain are in this county: at Murray Hill in Harrison County the hills rise more than 350 feet above the river floodplain.

Slopes taller than most

With that much relief nearby, many properties around Missouri Valley include a slope that sheds water fast. Loess soil, a wind-laid silt that is hard when dry and loses cohesion when wet, erodes into gullies quickly once it is bare. On those slopes we put the effort where it counts: water diverted from the top, then a sprayed bonded fiber matrix or rolled blankets, seeded with a mix that includes deep-rooted grasses.

An old railroad town

Missouri Valley was a true railroad town in the late 1800s. It was laid out in 1867 when the Chicago and North Western arrived, it held the Sioux City and Pacific's headquarters and shops, and by 1896 some 25 passenger trains a day came through on three lines. Lots near old rail corridors can have cinders, gravel and fill under a thin skin of soil. Grass on that kind of base dries out fast, and adding real topsoil before hydroseeding is usually what makes the difference.

State forest and prairie

The Loess Hills State Forest covers about 10,600 acres in Harrison and Monona counties. Much of the surrounding land holds oak-hickory woods and remnant prairie. For acreages and slopes that do not need a mowed lawn, a native mix such as big bluestem, little bluestem, Indian grass and sideoats grama is a good fit, and hydroseeding applies it evenly on terrain that is hard to drill.

Typical work here

• Lawn repair on older in-town lots
• Topsoil and seeding over old fill
• Hillside erosion control on acreages
• Native grass seeding on outer acres

Get a free estimate or call (402) 704-4105 for Missouri Valley and Harrison County.