http://organicmechanicsoil.com/contactus-organic-potting-soil.html
Mark Highland the Organic Mechanic and author of Practical Organic Gardening: The No-Nonsense Guide to Growing Naturally is here to share his garden entrepreneurship journey today! Full of golden seeds you won’t want to miss this!
(episode)
Can I ask? Are you a millennial? Cause I talk about rockstar millennials all the time. I have this funny story to tell you I have this book I wrote called the Green Queen and I feel like you are the Green King. I was reading your list of water saving tips and I feel like you and I are a lot a like. The reason I came up with the Green King idea is because I was showing the book to my friends in NY and they were like that’s our son the Green King and I feel like you really are the Green King!
Not quite a millennial, more of an X… some of their things like the tech part.
What do you mean your videos are awesome! Your music and stuff I love them!
But I didn’t do those, a good friend. I’m sure you’ve heard the millennials have killed golf and kleenex and cereal and I like those things. I like cereal.
I’m sure there’s some slacker millennials but not the ones I talk to.
They’re just driven honest. IDK too many millennial slackers. I just attended a farming conference, where there’s ton of Millennial farmers! The Executive Director of the Sustainable Ag Institute was talking about how there are 250 million farmers in the world and about 2 million of them live in the US And of US farmers in PA in the young farmers which is under 30 years old 60% are women!
Not just backyard slowly shifting statistics about farmers and how things are changing grand acreage is not even close
sustainable farming I think that is encouraging.
I’ve been reading a lot of statistics lately that a small 1 acre farm produces more food per acre then conventional farms. I mean it’s gonna be a ton of work and take a lot of energy. I think my listeners are those type of people they have more experience then me more like my husband full time gardeners. I call them green future growers .
Welcome to the Organic Gardener Podcast today! It is Sunday February 11, 2018 and I have an awesome guest on the line and you’ve heard the prechat!
His name is Mark Highland and he has a business called the Organic Mechanic Potting Soil
Tell us a little about yourself.
The volume of soil will directly impact
good soil is key
little bit of time and elbow grease
Tell me about your first gardening experience?
I lived all over the place
my first gardening
grandmother’s vegetable garden
walking down the row
- picking an eggplant
- asparagus
- 3 gallon bucket
- water
- walking down the rows pouring out this liquid on the plants
down the road
this was my job
neighbor had a dairy farm
anerobics manure tea that was in this bucket
pouring it on the plants
working in the garden when I was little
in school
going for an art major
ceramics all over high school
glass blowing
end of my sophomore year I didn’t want to get my MFA and move to NYC as I was being directed to do. The teachers loved my stuff and were like you can get into this school
- stay in state find something else
- found horticulture
- environmental
- plant blindness
- the term
Richard Louv coined that term
Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder
kids not getting
see the world with a gray lens
- grass trees shrubs
- flowers
- vegetable
- those are flowers
- those are trees
- acorns come from an oak tree
a world that I didn’t know existed
diversity
plants and animals everything’s connected
fell in love with horticulture right away
start of things
I did
so eye opening
loved learning about plants and how they work
inner workings of the industry
You can be a:
- nursery grow plants
- trees
- just work on trees
- arborist
- landscaper
- designer
- architect
- nursery grower
you can be so many different things
at the time
in the 90s when I was at the University o Florida
textbook
potting in compost
been going to the farming market
volunteered
Gainesville
somethings Mary
not any good potting soil
maybe someday
moved to
I like that I tried the different jobs in horticulture
- interior plants
- farm out in Oregon
- design build landscaping
- intervened at public gardens
- LongWood gardens
University of Delaware
Masters
- arborist plant health technician
- grunt
only job I didn’t have was a florist
- get to do that at home
- bathroom or another
- so many jobs in this industry
- be outside
- some people hate cubicles
- love being outside
- helps connect with nature
I just
good choice
whole path led me to meeting my wife
started bringing
Longwood love story
we stayed because this is a great area
Chester County in PA
2006
gardening
on the east side
hour outside of Philly
chester county west of Philly
blessed of
greater gardens of Philly
35 public gardens
- Longwood gardens
- Mount Pub
- Swarthmore arboretum
- tyler
- Jenkins
- Bartram’s Gardens
gardens
really cool one
Philly history…
What is your place like? Do you live onsite?
Don’t live on site
tiny town in median
basically operated last 6-7 years
basically a big ware house we rehabbed
1/2 an acre
materials
machinery
bagged and palletized
100% organic
potting soil amendments etc
property
friend started a company
recycle waste vegetable oil to produce biodiesel
started building gardens
turned into a summer CSA
grows food for Chester County food bank
take care of garden
weeding planting
harvesting
chef that comes in to teach about preparing healthy food
eat from the GARDEN
CSA garden surrounds the property
company itself
running the company is a lot of hours in the week
raising the family
time to write a book
Practical Organic Gardening: The No-Nonsense Guide to Growing Naturally
by the Organic Mechanic Mark Highland
It was fun
asked to write this book
it was a labor of love
wrote it in 2016
came out around the holidays around 2017
something in it for everyone
great for any beginning gardeners
gardeners who want to learn more
it’s not just about the food
about more of that
a paradigm shift
thinking about the bigger picture and ecosystem
not tunnel vision on your own property
all the subjects
working soil
organic fertilizers
care and cultivation
fighting pests and diseases
propagating plants
self gratifying
harvest seed
take cuttings to multiply your plant sec
section on containers
lawns
recycling and reusing
a lot of fun
work with great people
learned from gardeners who were more experienced and taught me things I learned from gardening
can’t discount this
a lot of this is the information
rewarding things in being in this industry
gardening your whole life
10 different gardeners things you never thought of before
strength of an organization is about people who work there
a
all the schools in the world
been there and done that and is willing to share
poured my heart and soul into this book
things that o
always been a writer
taking complex scientific information and making it assessable
try to do in the book
brain always wants to
how did that work
that’s
I like to think that’s one of my strengths
how to water
try not to splash the leaves
most of the time
don’t get those leaves wet
Almost 400 retailers
Maine to florida
out towards Chicago
boston to dc
website
where page
who’s close to you
we’re not out west very much
soil is heavy
costs a lot to ship
local providers
we do ship
compost is my number one go to item in the garden
when I started organic mechanic
true organic earth friendly option
environmental sustainable
- peat-free
- coconut core and compost in our mixes
Instead of perlite
- white stuff that crunch
- rice hulls
- earth friendly 100% organic
- not left with
- rice hulls are domestic
- a lot of rice grown
- florida
Louisiana
wild rice
Minnesota
california
- shell around the rice
- par boiled to get rid of any weed seed to get rid of
- pathogens
- fluff up the mix and provide drainage
- give back phosphorous and silicone
- slice open a root bulb
see if it worked
- eaten by soil bacteria
- source of carbon
- bacteria when they eat
- sticky stuff like glue
- holds soil together
soil structure
carved out canoe like
bacteria produced sticky stuff
even though the rice hull was gone
this will work
can totally use it
did that back in 2009
Our stuff is sold at garden centers
- natural food stores
- whole foods
- garden centers
- mom and pop plant shops
- not box stores
more
ma be huge the size of a department store
the garden store
were not in the box stores
hard to compete
against Scotts and miracle grow
we’ll compete on quality and customer
independent garden centers
super fun
my favorite thing to do
we’d show up at someone’s house
have coffee
go to the garden center
unusual rare things
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Now Let’s Get to the Root of Things!
Which activity is your least favorite activity to do in the garden?
Least favorite is weeding
- definitely weeding got to be it for everyone
- when your an organic gardener that’s pretty much hand weeding
- being persistent take them out with a scuffle hoe
- can knock out
everybody that get busy so you got to get in there and weed it, just do it
I’m not able to pop up and squat as fast fast as I used to so I gotta like take it easy, but thankfully we finally raised up the little gardeners! 6 year old can grab the little piles and that’s a little help.
You know what you were saying before about being in a cubicle, my theory is garden in the morning when it’s cool and then go into your computer and art work and stuff when it’s hot in the afternoon. For me it’s often hard to get there, but I like to get my exercise in in the morning.
What is your favorite activity to do in the garden.
Favorite activity would be planting
- bulbs
- plants
- annual time of the year when you get to plant all the garlic that’s fun!
- building something
- I just did all that
- now everything is planted good to go
What my wife and I call our garden walk. In the morning we get up and get out there early
We walk the line
lot of containers still
what’s blooming oh that’s cool you don’t want to miss it. Sometimes things are not always blooming… bloom season is short on things…
looking at the garden
- scouting for pests
- see some holes starting on the kale
- gotta go pick the caterpillars larva
- another way to be connected with your garden
- being present in the garden
- get to hear the birds chirping
- connected with nature
- Saturday morning out with your coffee
- GOOD STUFF!
I totally agree!
What is the best gardening advice you have ever received?
“if your not killing plants your not gardening”
I don’t get sad if I kill a plant
I wanna sink this plant in the ground there
if it flourishes
balance
how much light do I have
for this particular plant
a lot of us garden in less then ideal conditions
pick and choose that way
sink it in the ground
plagued with pests
plants out in full sun
A favorite tool that you like to use? If you had to move and could only take one tool with you what would it be.
My garden tool I can’t live without
hori hori
- looks like a dagger
- super sharp
- have a hilt on the edge
- safer for you using it
- divide plants with them
- dig out a dandelion
- indestructible
pair of Felcos
good pruning saw
- indispensable
A favorite recipe you like to cook from the garden?
- definitely nothing like fresh snap peas
- my dad grew those
- loved them when they were little
- cherry tomatoes for the kids as well
- trying to instill this love of gardening and being outside
- love their electronics
- pick things off the vine and eat them
that’s a classic experience for me and my family!
Good for you, your kids are gonna treasure these moments forever!
A favorite in ternet resource?
there’s a couple of good ones
a whole page in the book
resources
ATTRA – National Center for Appropriate Technology
sustainable agriculture program
center
techniculture assistance
ATTRA .org
We are close to the Rodale Institute
started by JR Rodale
organic gardening mag
research farm
ever since it was
farming systems trial
proving had higher yields
more nutrient dense
I’m thinking I might put this episode up today and I want to put my interview with Paul Kita from men’s health up for Valentine’s Day this week since your so romantic with your wife and he’s got this new book called a Man, a Pan and a Plan. And that’s what inspired me I always wanted to work for Rodale Publishing in NYC cause they’re the ones that published Organic Gardening Magazine which is now Organic Life.
A favorite reading material-book, mag, blog/website etc you can recommend?
Well I have less and less time to read sadly these days
when I am reading
articles magazines I get
green profit
grower talks
if your in
independent garden centers
growing plant and nurseries
horticulture society
phenomenal organization
Philadelphia and beyond
magazine called grow
regionally that ones great
books that I was just finished reading
Teaming with microbes
Practical Organic Gardening: The No-Nonsense Guide to Growing Naturally
The first chapter I try to lay out why I think organic gardening is important. It’s not necessarily a hippie manifesto, I’m trying to have real reasons why we as human beings
should be concerned
- about our air
- our water
- our soil
We really need a total paradigm shift
So we’re thinking about what we’re doing so everyone can have healthy food and drink water 100 years from now 500 years from now.
I set that stage in easy to understand
simple goals
- positively encourage environmental feed back loops.
- They should build soil health and productivity
- help absorb water and nutrients
- producing fresh air for everyone
They’re not just vegetable gardens also ornamental plants
plant tropic level of food
to feed insects
birds feed their babies a couple of hundred catapillars a day!
if we don’t have native plants
one part of the cycle
they should also be places of replenishment
very few things on the planet that do what gardens for human beings
the forest is natures garden
what we do in our backyards
big forest out there too
every garden is a little oasis
you may be an organic gardener but your neighbors aren’t so maybe your property is the one the insects come to and the birds come to but the more who garden organically
biological activity
support on the planet
So a farm when they are starting out to a there’s a transition period 3 years
learned and built
incorporate
If you’re a conventional gardener that’s just what you know you’re still a gardener
bit more earth friendly
tons of things you can learn
it’s a process
don’t have to be scared
- it’s gonna be too hard
- gonna be more work
but they really aren’t more work it’s about the same
practical gardening tips
organic too
looking at trees and making sure you don’t have girdling roots
die when they’re 20 years old
little things like make sure it’s not root bound in the pot
room for everyone to be an organic gardener
dial in your organic gardening
that was pretty much with the book
tons of info
I kind of go in deep on soil
in the end it is only 70k words so I couldn’t go into everything but there’s a lot of base information from there that you can then take to the next level if you’re interested in a topic
To me it’s more then that, it’s like a manual for people that people could do workshops for their neighbors or the landscapers! Landscapers might even be able to charge more or a premium price, because you want to be a premium business right, the race to the bottom only has one winner and you don’t want to be that guy. I can’t believe how many people I met this summer even that are like guess what I planted a garden, and then they etell me about the chemcials they put on their stuff.
I talked with David Salman in New Mexico who had a similar background who went to horticulture school in colorado but when he opened his own nursery he went the organic way and sold native plants because it made his clients and customers more successful! Bob Quinn is the other one in Montana who’s growing this Kamut wheat but also this Farro that’s like a native rice using dry farming techniques, also is not a hippie and went that way for profits.
teaching landscapers some of these p
impact on your own garden
taking care of perhaps 100s of gardens
educating about
practical purposes
can’t do all that garden work
benefits of the garden
pay someone else to do it
opportunity
ELA: Ecological Landscape Alliance
It’s an organization based out of New England but the work they are doing is applicable nationwide. they have these newsletters going out with
- killer articles
- member you can sign on for webinars
- economical membership
benefits
science driven
info for
- landscapers
- gardeners
- designers
- landscape architects
ela alliance
check out that website
become a member
great organization
full disclosure I’m on the board. When I was in college they were like the best organization out there, I aspired to having a poster session after I presented my master thesis! I got to present there and it was like amazing!!!
Then out of the blue I was asked to interview for the board
- nominated
- phenomenal organization
- killer
- membership
- webinars alone
- biggest names in horticulture
- annual conference
enough about ELA
articles
Amazon Review
You hear the big debate about college any more but it sounds like someone could invest
Your journey is very unique, and I think your book is going to be a complete success, and listeners remember go and leave him a review even if get it from your library or even just from listening to our talk, nothing drives me crazy when I find a podcast I’ve been looking for it, I go look and they have like 10 reviews I’m like what is wrong with your audience go leave them a review so that people can learn.
It’s so important for people I feel like your book is going to be like a manual for people to share with people and teach because you have this big science background!
Do u have an inspiration tip or quote to help motivate our listeners to reach into that dirt and start their own garden?
I guess for a parting tip would be its all about applying yourself and just going it
I gained all this experience
- path all over the place
- do more learn more
- always doing more then I thought was physically possible
- if you can push your body to do it you can do it
- that aspect of my life
- pushing myself to do more experiences
I pushed myself to write the book even though I was way to busy, I didi it!
working hard pushing yourself to try new things in the garden
read more books
educating yourself whether it’s hands on or more book reading
smartest things you can do
- time at college
- helped me
- prepared me
My master’s thesis taught me about the scientific method
- I learned a lot from those people I interacted with on the way
- getting out there
- join the local garden club
- more you do
- more you will learn
- I got this way because I worked my tail off my whole life
That’s why I’m here and anybody can do that!
How do we connect with you?
Practical Organic Gardening: The No-Nonsense Guide to Growing Naturally
Practical Organic Gardening – Publishing in December!
On social media
https://www.instagram.com/organicmechanicsoil/
https://www.facebook.com/organicmechanicsoil
https://twitter.com/organicmechanix
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If you like what you heard on the Organic Gardener Podcast we’d love it if you’d give us review and hopefully a 5 star rating on iTunes so other gardeners can find us and listen to. Just click on the link here.