At Garden Maker™ Naturals, we want to help gardeners grow their best possible gardens. Every garden is different – different plants, different weather, different soil. Why shouldn’t your fertilizer be just as unique? Today you can build your own burger and design your own doll, so we thought you should be able to formulate your own fertilizer, too. In March of 2017, we launched Garden Maker™.
Our three core values are Natural Nutrition, Total Transparency and Complete Control. Natural Nutrition for your garden soil means we only use natural & organic ingredients. Total Transparency lets you know exactly what you’re feeding your garden, because we show you the exact formula of every fertilizer we make – every single ingredient in the bag. And Complete Control means that we make it easy to find or create a fertilizer that contains only the ingredients you want, with nothing that you don’t.
Tell us a little about yourself.
I’m a Bio-chemist who fell in love with sustainability
I’ve done a fair amount with
- soils
- endangered animals
- environmental projects
predominantly from the business world because my belief was until the board rooms talk about sustainability nothing’s gonna change but I’m pleased to say a lot of boards are talking about green and what it takes.
Well my listeners are gonna love this because I call my listeners Green Future Growers, they’re
- forward thinking
- entrepreneruial
- visionaries
they’re
IDK why in my life I am addicted to business podcasts because when I first went to college I wouldn’t have walked into the business building for the life of me.
Beauty and Briefcase
There’s this funny movie with Hillary Duff called the Beauty and Briefcase and she falls in love with this guy who is not a tree-hugger at all but he’s an environmentalist because it’s efficeincy and reduces waste. And Im very much like that I hate any kind of waste.
Tell me about your first gardening experience?
That’s easy one for me!
I had a father who was a bit ahead of his time on the green side
I wouldn’t say he was a hippy quite opposite
But he
- liked farming
- liked the earth
- understanding what weeds did
At the age 7-8 we had a big garden and I was pretty involved with that
He decided I should sell extra produce
my brother preceded me
1950s we did a farm to market garden stand
back in the before anyone knew what those were
- 350 -400 tomato plants
picked
- peppers
- corn
We sold the excess in a roadside stand
father, he’s not with us but I have to give him full credit
a bit of understanding of what’s good on the earth
and to be involved as a
- businessman
- entrepreneurship
5-6 years
Other then a few years when I went away to college I have had a garden every year of my life. Some in there I hadn’t graduate school. My families garden or our own
gardener
long long time
There’s been an epiphany in our family because my daughter who lives down the hill from us on a farm is now the head of the family and I’m the assistant and I couldn’t be more thrilled that she has taken up the effort and the staff.
How big is your place?
It’s 200 plus acre farm
now in our family
garden viewed a large garden in most households
grapes and a number of other things
moved another generation looks like her 2 sons are engaging in the garden as well! All exciting for how long we’ve been in the garden industry?
That’s awesome! Do you want to talk about the environmental projects or the endangered animals? How a chemist falls in love with sustainability?
Yeah! a guy told me something I scoffed at when i heard it. The gentleman’s comments was you will gain your passion as you execute it and do it not at teh front end.
once you see it work and see the results and you will get more excited and that was certainly true for me!
IDK when it all started
this opportunity arose to
environments and habitat
ecosystems are all about
very sucessful I made a lot of friends
began to study the rest of the planet it all starts with plants
most part dependent on the plants dependent on the sun
Mother Nature
classic ecosystem on macro and micro basis. I began to appreciate was that mother nature in her good wisdom had developed nutritional systems for plants
similar to what animals had done
began to look true for plants as well
we deliver them different
ecosystems in the soil
soil food web
quote fertilizer and nutritional plane
all of a sudden I understood mother natures systems were more related then different
chemical fertilizers which were always foreign to what an animal eats
no animal eats a refined
no animal eats a static diet
Except a animal eating synthetic in a laboratory environment
nature and what mother nature produces
comparisons
bring that technology
to people
began building fertilizers
looking at natural solutions for problems
- personally doing them as well as
- building products and businesses relationships
How do you build business relationships for things like that?
how that started
Particular one wiht our garden maker website
that helps customers that buy their own
People who have larger branded names
small companies that have sustainable approaches
I find it kin of a grass roots movement a lot of companies that want to participate
still a lot of road to travel to get everyone on board.
Our new website helps people access that’s the good word
it was hard to find and access so we built a way for people to access it easily
That’s GARDEN MAKER.com
why that all got started is because I wanted to buy 100lbs
We coudn’t get them it was hard!
could buy a semi load
44,000 lbs is a lot!
Can I ask you’re asking about dirt? 1000 lbs of dirt?
No
fertilizers
- alfalfa meals
- mineral sources
- find in small pound bags but 100 lbs were hard to find!
couldn’t find where I live and I couldn’t find them around other people
GARDEN MAKER NATURALS website
access the individual ingredients in what you want
if you’re gonna feed yourself what you’re growing then you ought to know what you’re putting on the ground.
You could argue that these are all proprietary rights, but NO. People want to know
- what they’re eating
- feeding soil
- what their family is going to consume
team for people
transparent
see the full formulas
access
literally buy a semi
- 10
- 5
- 25lb amounts
very excited about that
let’s people have access
the freedom to do as they would like to do for their family!
Mike’s Mini Farm Year One
I’m trying not to say I LOVE ALL THIS! But I really do love it all. My husband’s really the gardener I like to paint in the garden and eat the vegetables maybe grow some flowers, but my husband’s the big gardener. He started this thing I call the mini farm and we are on the major search for dirt we can afford that’s high quality.
The first year’s attempt was to be somewhat quiet, but we knew in any launch of a technology of this time there would be
- wrinkles
- bugs
- things
We beta tested etc so all last summer
- We were tweaking
freight rates were not as good as they were supposed to be
- adjusted
So for us! The real launch began in January and December
New opportunity
be able to buy with full transparency
customize your own
or buy individual ingredients
Do you want to talk about soil testing a bit? That has been recommended on my show a lot. Mike hasn’t gotten his soil tested, last year I actually talked him into trying it and then I dropped the ball on sending it in.
Soil Testing
Soil testing is a very valuable tool
It shouldn’t be over used and where to send things is kind of important
If anyone is listening from a University this is no slam but University
extension services
have a tendency to make recommendations based on NPK comments lime
Albrecht
We look at it a different level from the University of Missouri named Albrecht
here
looking at how to bring
soil to life from both chemistry and biology
Part that we spend the most time thinking about is how to feed the biology
- bacterial
- fungal
- insect
- lives in the soil
- how does that ecosystem work?
We tend to think of soil tests is do them every other year or every 3rd year because they don’t change overnight
Kind of monitor what you need to do
But we believe if you feed the soil and bring the biology back to correct balance you would be amazed how fast the soil chemistry’ begin to also align themselves
if you provide a food source in a fertilizer a lot of the soil chemistry issues, not wane but certainly it begins to put things back in balance. I’ve watched it happen!
will begin to
guides to
we like a lab called Logan Labs in Ohio
provide comments back to customers on an organic basis
They will help you solve it looking on the numbers on an organic way if that’s the direction you want to go
soil reports are kind of consumers
I love this because a lot of people ask me that. Where do you send your soil sample.
There’s a nice search engine out there called Google.
My husband likes me to use a search engine called Ecosia that plants trees for every search, sometimes I end up going to Google, but more often for my drive.
do a nice job of helping you of understanding
what you need to apply
build what you want
If you’re a farmer need lots of stuff
If you need within 5-100 lbs of material.
Our site helps you get that going, we don’t make recommendations because that’s a big deal but the Logan Labs site will get you going.
The other thing about organic fertilizers for your listeners is they’re incredibly forgiving!
You can add too much and can do some things but it’s really on the excessive side
chemical much more intense or you need to be much more careful about what you do
the organic side you can apply a little bit wrong
a lot about what were trying to apply to the soil
putting energy or carbon in the soil
Plants exude
food
calories
plants not particularly healthy
they don’t have all the minerals they need
don’t produce enough sugards
helping feed directly those microbes which become more populated
root structure
help plant transfer more minerals then the plant becomes more robust then they can feed microbes themselves.
think of a young animal can’t care for itself needs nurturing and caring
- make soil healthier
- plants healthier and then
- plants return the favor
- whole cycle begins
That’s how you grow prairies as high as a man on a horse
without chemical intervention
derived around
help people build those
grandpa or dad
- blood meal
- feather meal
- trace mineral – Azomite
- calcium
- eggshells in the garden
makes sense that’s what your base is.
I think people are gonna be fascinated. We’re talking April 2nd? I thought this fall why don’t we do the soil test now? Is there a reason why you need to wait till spring?
On the soil testing? No, it does not matter, you can take any time
The tradition is if you’re really gonna get into it
We have a small production vineyard, we do petioles testing
Sorry Folks this is about where I got to on the show notes and then I was driving when I edited the rest of the RAW show. One of these soon days I will get the rest fixed up right!
REMEMBER TO CHECK OUT BILL’s WEBSITE gardenmaker.com
basically looking at what’s in the plant
soil test every 3rd year
more of an understanding
spend the money
really concerned
samples
analysis
maybe be more valuable
soils don’t move quite as fast
pedioles
year over year
take them at the similar
June all the time
year over year
take them in the summer
soils can be very wet in the spring
send them into the labs
compacted
compressing
summer in the fall
plus I like to
again
what we learned in our website
if you’ve taken your soil test in the summer
fall is a wonderful
calcium and phosphate sources
take time
shock value
don’t want to over apply anything
a lot of material
want to divvy that up to multiple applications
a lot of one particular nutrient
falls’ a wonderful time to make a lot of these applications
dormant from a plant side
not from a biology side
a lot is going to happen
spring
culmination affect
slow build
approving your soil
decades to kind of mess it up
few years to get it back to where
organics work slow I won’t see any effect
you will see impact within a week
reasonably
just grow from there
results from a year or two
good news is you will get bigger results in future years
tings
petiole analysis
soil lab on U of Missouri
send in
logan offers them or not
stem or green part of the plant
grapes we take the piece the stem from the leaf that goes to the cane
might put a cover crop on it
till that in
tomato
roses
spring as your planting
what we like is they become an immediate food source for all that biology
kickstart give an extra boost
want that biology
begin to associate
biosphere
microrisal fungai
organisms when that plant is young
root hairs
synergy works same as well
grasses
lawn
applications in the spring
tend to help it grow
most people
southern
warm season
fescues
blue grasses
spring grasses
growth as we can
time and temp
at 70-80º peak
flowers and shrubs
perennials
any time you want
fall addition
spring addition
we all know that growing tomatoes is the equivalent
that’s our guide
what we’re attempting to do
worry about bigger and greater
more nutritious
USDA has collected
nutrient profile of organically grown vegetables
seems to better
for the most part
fruit from plants or vegetables can have ea. better nutritional profile for humans
generally from these plants is
pest
passion comes later
horn worms that are gonna show up that are chomping at those leaves
plants are gonna be healthier
gonna produce compounds that are gonna keep them away
1-2 of them
plants become more robust
become healthier
secondary compounds
lycopene in tomatoes
fruits
tend to believe what happens
more flavorful
more nutritious
healthier plant biosyjtem
flowers that would generate itself in blooms
fruit trees in health
insect management
same responses
personally dealt with
squash beetles
almost attracted to organic products
toughest to deal with
magic bullet
still struggle
squash beetles
critters have generally
if you’ve not watched the video
I think it’s on youtube
what the ecosystem did when the wolves returned to Yellowstone
impact the willows that grow erosion around a stream
long distance
between erosion on a stream bank to a wolf
number of predator insects
number is phenomenal
wheel bugs
assassin
pretty prevalent
who yes eat ladybugs
do not desire to
coyotes hard on rodents
bearing the seeds
ground squirrel population
beavers were messed up
willows eating by the elk
beaver couldn’t build their lodges
coyotes
don’t like wolves
small rodent population
plants to grow better
same ecosystem in it’s own way
what your trying to bring to your farm home
don’t want wolves
want robins
nasty as they
mole or two
funguses
mulch don’t like to look at
coming back into the soil
dramatic
even in our backyard
follow procedure
less harsh treatment
Tell us about something that grew well this year.
probably one is
we do a nice job
the olympic crop of tomatoes
particularly
heritages
grow out of 8 foot high cages
produce
right through frost
green tomatoes
tomatoes have done extremely well
phenomenal pumpkin
partly timing
weather
soil
change to have a very
systems will do very
we have variety
diversity is one of mother natures hallmarks of what you need to do
plant a variety
if we have 12 probably have 9 varieties
different fruits
appearances
cooking
dining
more enjoyable in that regard
basil
potatoes
4 different
pumpkins did six
pie based pumpkins
white pumpkin
household end up with the chickens
don’t waste don’t want
recycle as much as we can
Is there something you would do different next year or want to try/new?
daughter has already
wont go into dollars
browsing
seed catalogs
in one case
we have 2 grand children
indian corn we’re gonna grow
three or 4 new things
every year
we did
pickling cucumbers on a trellis system
nothing wrong with that
probably grow something else
Tell me about something that didn’t work so well this season.
tried to maintain a natural organic lawn for numbers of years
I have not given up
mastered what I need to do in my lawn system
bursts of success stretches of not so good
don’t irrigate
I refuse to spend the money
wasteful environmental attributes
high environmental impact
not much real return
position to have a nice one
organically and naturally not mastered that in my mind
looks pretty good
weed management
don’t have all the calcium nutrition
docket take a hard look at that
sell a lot of lawn fertilizers
people have more success doing it that way
one that people
Soil test for lawn?
not normally
most systems have a balance
who they want their friends to be
don’t have to figure out that for them
provide an environment has a chance to thrive
grasses are clearly different then what you typically grow in the garden
different things will propagate
solid good nutrition
years in the line
numbers
luscious lawn and garden 3-1-5
peppers and tomatoes
excellent job in lawns
go across
good nutritious soil
I may be short some nutrients
lawn soil is not as good
till a garden work
the soil
mix things in
working their way down into the soil
nutritional
forest typically where you are
pine
conifer
fungal dominated
grasses like
don’t grow well with forests
took some of that really rich black
probably not kill your lawn
not associated with grasses
basically doing with the manures
shifting the soil type
clippings
benefit the bacteria
plant types gone through all that
different plants have a ratio
population
choose sources that your trying to do
roses
different growing tomatoes
fungal dominated soil with roses
feed them different things
kelp meal
slower
wood mulch around them
help propagate
versus a tomato or onion
all it is trying to help mother nature
Now Let’s Get to the Root of Things!
Which activity is your least favorite activity to do in the garden.
weeding
What is your favorite activity to do in the garden.
watching my grandchildren enjoy the garden
my grandson who is 7
dug potatoes for an hour and half
5 year old
outstanding
enjoy gardening pretty rewarding
What is the best gardening advice you have ever received?
probably
plant organic
make healthier plants and make the bugs go away
wise advice
maybe the other paying some attention to companion plantings
marigolds
next to the peppers
seems to really help
companion plantings
seem to be really
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.
probably a hoe
more then anything else
A favorite recipe you like to cook from the garden?
I would say there are a lot of good things from the garden
wife is more of the food preparer then I am
homegrown tomatoes
Caprezi salad
heirloom
unique different varieties of tomatoes
close behind that
don’t alway grow it because of space
garden fresh sweet corn
A favorite internet resource?
Im kind of bias here we work with
IDK
that I have a good site
gardenmaker.com has been great
someone that I go to all the time
that’s a good one
technical side
practical side of what you do
don’t
a lot of different sites
A favorite reading material-book or a mag you can recommend?
love of growing grapes
recreational side
wine spectator
enjoyable books
hobby farm
balance of different things
current farm for little over 50 years
tractor
all the things it does
grapes
chickens
go to magazines
daughter when I get it
she too is the most excited it has showed
gonna grow grapes in any kind of size or scale
a lot more work then we anticipated
when the successes roll in we enjoy these
a lot of work to growing grapes
pay a lot of attention to the varieties of
climate you have
trying to force things to grow where you want to grow
some historical basis to where you are
technology
books that are written
site selection
irrigation
pruning
harvesting
business side
not a commodity
grow 50 acres of corn
grapes don’t do that
commercial enterprise
make sure you have a market
not instant
doesn’t instantly
gonna grow
20 plants of table grapes for your family
wine groups
cost and expense
much more involved process
rewarding
planning
working at it has been successful
5 acres
a little over 3000 plants
heritage
wine growing area historically
first bit of
Augusta Missouri
before prohibition
great culture
known to be a successful wine growing area
lot of heritage
that’s their choice
harder
french
ahead of everybody
2000 years of experience
cultivars native to area
Final question- if there was one change you would like to see to create a greener world what would it be? For example is there a charity or organization your passionate about or a project you would like to see put into action. What do you feel is the most crucial issue facing our planet in regards to the environment either in your local area or on a national or global scale?
I think it’s very much local
personal
governments are institutions that dictate green
future generations
I would love to see
every family to make a concerted effort to do 2-3 things to
green lifestyle
you and i will not determine
harvest back the precious metals
how we till our gardens
nitrogen runoff
recycling
electricity demand
water usage
adopt some amount of care
personal life
little pieces will
How do we connect with you?
join
have fun designing your own products
try one of ours
tweak around
enjoyed
more we get your support
efforts what
facebook! Instagram
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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.