And when I was planting the asparagus, I just focus on like that next shovel. And I think when we are able to do that, like having an intention of where we want to go and the life we want to live, and at the same time, focus on what we do, what we, where we are in this moment can be really, really powerful and help us get through the really, really hard
My question about the asparagus, like asparagus or perennial that like you put them in. And it’s A while before, like, so did you have like a specific area picked out where they were going to go or you just dedicating part of your field? Like now that’s going to be the asparagus patch?
Yeah. Well, I planted the strawberries east-west and there was one, I had a bit of a, I had left a bit of room for a tractor to drive and, but a tractor can’t drive anymore because I ended up feeling, filling it with, with summer squash and now asparagus. So I didn’t really have a spot for it, but I had about 20 summer squash planted along one of those beside one of the strawberry rows.And I just, I dug out five of them and I replanted them in other random places in the garden.
And then I, I left the rest of them and they’re just going to be intertwined in the asparagus. I do have to see if they’re good crop companion still, if they’re not, then I’ll move them. But right now they’re, they’re, they’re sharing the space and they will be there permanently that row of asparagus. So that’s it, aside from like tearing out something else in garden, it was really the only space.
And I think it’s the best space. And I think it looked really nice there. Yeah.
Fresh asparagus or like there’s nothing better? Right.
So I know my listeners are probably wondering like a little bit about biodynamic, like gardening. Do you want to talk about that a little bit? Maybe explain what that is.
If I, because I have a lot of new listeners since 2020 started, and so they might not have heard some of my older episodes. I did just replay one with just peers from the John Jeavons center.
Okay. But I did notice when I was listening to it, it was driving me crazy, like the sound like I’m loud and she’s soft or she’s loud and I’m soft and loving. And like I ended up turning off. What does that tell you?
Compost Compost Compost
Well, it, it tells me there’s just composting. You can compost compost, compost. That’s another thing that, that the brain, you know, the gardening and the farming of the brain injury taught me is like, is the power of composting?
What, you know, you can say composting the heart or composting the learnings and turning them into and letting them, and sometimes you can like, it’s instant that composting that can happen, especially when you have some really good worms, but sometimes it takes time.
And I think that’s, that’s the way life is too. Right. Sometimes working through things takes time. It’s not always about like getting to where we want to be, but it’s just being really present with where we are and working through that.
Biodynamics
So biodynamics actually compliments that really beautifully because I, I’m kind of like, even though I grew up in an organic farm and by practice biodynamics and my grandfather was actually from Germany and he had his PhD in agriculture and was also studied at the Steiner Institute there, I think I have, I’ve helped make perhaps, but I’ve never made my own preps and so now I get to make my own preps, which I’m super excited about!
biodynamic farming.
I think to really simply explain it is really one of the most holistic, sustainable, succinct ways of farming, because it really focuses on building healthy soil and building a healthy ecosystem and sustainability ecosystem within the farm.
So the whole farm becomes this living, breathing organism that all supports one another from the animals to the soil, to the plants, to the sun, to the moon, to his whole existence.
It’s really working in harmony with all parts and all living beings and all the movement.
And so for some there’s the, I can never say it properly. There’s the anthroposophical part, which is a bit what people might call a bit. Woo.
And at the same time, there’s a lot of value. And we, we, we know that the moon where the moon is in the cycle impacts, you know, the impacts, the ocean, the impacts, the tide’s high tide, low tide.
We know this, we know that the sun impacts how, how plants grow. And so biodynamics takes into account like the planetary alignment and the moon alignment and encourages people to plant based on the, where the moon is in the cycle.
And so that’s one aspect of biodynamics.
And then it also biodynamics uses preparations, which are one of my favorite things, because I don’t know if you’re familiar with homeopathic medicine or you Jackie at all, or Herb’s or by taking herbs and vitamins.
Yeah. I forget what his name is, but isn’t like doctor Braun or something with a B yeah, yeah.
You know what it’s like going out of my brain to right now, but yeah, those are homeopathic Bach, Bach remedies. Yeah. So Bach remedies.
So, but I don’t know what the prep thing is that you’re talking about. So I was going to ask you, because you said it somewhere earlier too. And I was like, what?
So I’m going to that. So the preparations are, it’s like making super bugs or super foods for your compost and for your garden and for your land, for what you’re growing.
Horn preparation for biodynamic Farming
So one of the preparations is it’s a horn preparation and it’s, it’s horn silica. It’s called BD501 and it’s a powder. And the way it’s made is you take manure, like fresh manure, and you put it in the horn, and then you bury it. And it stays there for, I think, six months or something. And then you take it out. And when you’ve taken it out, that manure has turned into this beautiful powder that you can use on your soil, and you can use in your compost teas and it’s used it’s.
How do you say? So it’s kind of like, if you take a herb or vitam for yourself to support your body, to be in really good health or homeopathic remedy to help your body be in really good health, that’s what, like a preparation is for in biodynamic farming.
It’s, it’s putting life into the soil is it’s feeding it with microbes and it’s, and it’s, and Fostering, like a nurturing an in biodiverse environment.
So is that helpful?
Yeah, Because like we were saying before, like the soil, food web, and all, and making sure that you’re feeding all those, you know, bugs and microscopic insects and the micro corizae and the fungi down there, and the root exudites, how that all blends together.
And Yeah, it’s really powerful. And so that, so I, the idea of biodynamics is really just, is really to support a living ecosystem within itself and to support the microbiology and life of the soil and life of the farm and everything, everything works together. And you can say kind of talks together. Yeah.
Okay. Well, let’s do, like the end of my show is kind of this thing we call the, getting to the root of the thing, getting to the root of things where I’ll ask you like some shorter kind of easier questions.
Do you have, like a least favorite activity?
like something you have to force yourself to do in the garden, like dig a trench full of asparagus?
Hey, and by the way, I Googled super quickly, asparagus and strawberries are companion plants. You are good to go there. I saw it on Mother Earth News.
Awesome.
So my least favorite, you know, it’s kinda, this is funny because it’s my least favorite. My favorite is my least favorite. Cause it hurts and that’s pulling missiles, but it’s my favorite because if you do it right, you don’t get hurt. And it just, it’s such a powerful metaphor for me. Like, and if you pull out, if you pull up the fiscals every single year before they flower, then you can eventually get rid of all the thistles in your garden. You, it totally disappeared. And I know this for sure, because we did it with our fields and Matt SWE.
So it was my least favorite job because it hurt when you didn’t do it. Right. But my favorite, because it was so impactful when it was done,
What’s the secret to doing it right? So it doesn’t hurt, like wearing heavy duty gloves or grip rigid the right place?
Go into your soil. Like, so you dig, you push your hand down into the soil and then you pull it out by the root. Yeah. And you can wear gloves if you, if, if you’re pulling them out in your garden or in your yard, that hasn’t where this soil has not been tilled, then using gloves and grabbing them at the very base of the plant and trying to get as much of the root as possible.
But if you’re pulling them on your garden where the soil is tilled, then you push your hand down underneath the soil, you grab the root and then you pull it out.
Awesome. So is that my other question is On the flip side, what’s your favorite activity? Is that your favorite activity?
My favorite activity is probably actually anything to do with flowers.
Anything like anytime something is flowering, my whole, my whole body lights up. Like it’s like raise a sunshine. It’s like being kissed by rays of sunshine.
It’s so picking flowers, selling flowers!
like pruning to help the flowers be more like affluent and vibrant and not just pruning like actual flowers like dailias, but actual like pruning blueberry bushes so that when the flowers come in, the blossoms come into bloom, that they can be less and more at the same time.
Hey, you have any secrets for growing blueberries specifically related to the soil?
Because like I put these blueberries in and then I talked to the soil test lady and like, I kind of researched it and it says that our soil should have a 4.5 pH. Meanwhile, our soil is like close to a 7.8. And I’m just curious, like
how old, how old are the plant?
I planted them last year and they didn’t do much now. I thought last year they didn’t do anything because I didn’t water them And I’ve been watering them way more this year. And they, they definitely are growing a little and they’re bigger, but one of them, like the leaves are just yellow. And I just feel like probably the soil problem.
Yeah. Yellow can be watered them too much this year.
No, no, they’re definitely not getting water too much, but they’re getting water as compared to last year, they were kind of starved for water.
Yeah. They could be, they could be rooting, you know, they could be rooting and cause one time when we planted, do they have, do you have problems with moles or voles or anything?
I don’t know what that means. Rooting.
Yeah. Just as a I’ll get to that. Do you have a problem with moles or voles or anything like that? Like any rodents?
Not really? Where these are Mike sometimes doesn’t his mini farm, but these are over in the garden by the house.
Yeah. So the rooting means when you first plant something and especially if it’s not maybe the ideal, ideal soil type or if it’s, then it takes time for the plants roots to set and to like find their home. And, and so if they’re up against that and they weren’t watered maybe enough last year, then they’re still fine.
Those roots are still finding their home. They’re still, I call it rooting where they’re still like, you know, like just getting, getting more secure, shooting off new roots and, and getting a solid foundation.
So, cause that rooting has to happen before they can grow up and out and produce food. Because as long as they’re having struggle there, if they’re struggling with rooting, then they’re not going to produce. And then of course, then there’s pruning. I can send you a really good printing video if you’d like.
Sure. Cause what I’m wondering is like, should I take them out of the bender in and moving somewhere else? And then if I’m going to take them out, move them, like where do I find dirt that has a 4.5 pH? Like, what does that look like? Where do I get that kind of dirt just for them?
Hmm. Well they like, they, like, I see a lot of people putting like wood chips and stuff like that around there, their blueberries. And so what do you think that might help?
I don’t know. That’s interesting because Patti Armbrister yesterday kept saying you should be using woodchips for mulch. You should be using wood chips from mulch.
It’s a really powerful.
She was also saying that I should put it like she’s like, I always tell people around their beds. Cause we have tons of quack, grass, and grass growing into the beds and more she’s like you would get rid of all these weeds. Like you should have four feet around every one of these beds on the outside. And that would really help a lot of your struggle with your quackgrass getting right back into your bed.
Yeah. Yeah. And wood chips
And the wood chips, she kept saying, we’re going to block out the sunlight. So the weeds would have no photosynthesis and they wouldn’t be able to grow. And it would mulch back in, like she also said we should put them all around the base of that fruit trees, but then she was also talking about comfrey we should put some comfrey there.
All right. Anyway, these are supposed to be quicker questions for you. You’re probably like when is this interview ever gonna end?
The blueberries would also like your, your, your, the comfrey as well.
Comfrey’s really powerful. Do you grow it?
No. And then she was like, you can’t get it from seed. You need to get it from a mother plant. She’s like, if I would’ve known, I would’ve brought you some. So she said, next time she’ll bring me some cause then she said that would work a lot better for mulching if I just like chop the comfrey off and like was laying it down because I started laying like grass that I had collected from the lawnmower.
And she was worried that just, I don’t know, we never tried that before, but I don’t know what it made me ask Mike, if I, and he’s like, yeah, go ahead and put that around the broccolis. And she told me, she’s like, well, I would have probably let it dry out first before I put it around your, instead of just taking it fresh green. And then she was worried that it was going to get gooey and too wet in there.
But I forgot what I was gonna say. So here’s the interesting thing. The whole reason I’m playing is blueberries is I went over to my neighbors. She was like less than a mile through the woods. Like maybe half a mile from my house. And her blueberries two summers ago were just like huge and giant and fresh. And her plants just look so good. And she’s the one I should probably go talk to. And I was like, I want to go plant blueberries too!
And she’s like, Oh, I just got him like at Lowe’s or home Depot. That’s what I did and went and got him and put these two plants in. And I mean, like I said, they’re twice as big already this year as they ever got last year. And it’s still only June. And I did see some berries growing on one of them, but I just feel like they’re looking very yellow
and I just really want them to be these monster plants that she has and get the monster blueberries.
And I don’t know how yellow they are, but some blueberries, some jewelry leaves are more like lime greenie than others.
So yeah. I know. Maybe they’re just supposed to be that way. Cause my husband’s just like, he’s like, they’re fine. Don’t worry. I’m like the perfect example of like sometimes a little too much knowledges could hurt you, you know where I’m like, but we should have, like, there was one point I was kind of laughing yesterday. Just Patty was talking about how much lawn we have. And I wanted to be like, well, over here I was going to try to do some native planting. But then I, a couple of years ago, cause I talked to this like native landscaping specialists down in Missoula and I’m like, Oh, we should do more native planting.
And then like I, after, I don’t know why, like the more I pay attention, the more do my podcasts, more gardening. I’m like, okay, Mike has spent the last 10 years, like building this fence, creating a lawn and shoving the native landscaping out, like, cause we’re in 20 acres of forest. And it’s like only the little tiny bit around our house where the grass is that creates like major fire, you know, what’s it called the fire break or whatever. So our house, doesn’t burn down… we still have a million trees. I don’t know what would happen if a fire got too close to this house.
But anyway, you know, fire prevention any way, Natalie, what’s the best gardening advice you’ve ever received?
man, you know, it’s probably from my dad and my dad says things are going to do what we’re going to do. We think we have so much control and really we have no control and it was so freeing.
So for example, sometimes you get a hit with aphids and it might suck, but that’s also a feeding ground for all the lady bugs and all the, and all these other really beneficial insects.
And so sometimes letting an area of the garden just go to that is feeding into what the garden actually needs. So getting rid of the foods isn’t necessarily the best choice.
So that was really, really powerful.
And just to, to listen and to, to what the land is asking and what the visuals are asking
okay, my last little interruption here, Patty did mention yesterday, we were talking about ladybugs and aphids and that often even there’s something that you have too much nature in your plant and it might look really green and lush, but chances are good if it’s getting attached by aphids you have a nitrogen imbalance.
Yep. That’s right. Yeah.
So anyway, I hadn’t heard that before, cause we’ve always bought ladybugs to try to deal with it’s or we did, like there was this one year where there was like this broccoli point, we planted a whole bunch of broccoli and white brings this broccoli into me and it is like prickling moving.
It was so covered with insects, but really when I’m just leaving that plant there and, and the bugs were only on that one point and all the other broccoli heads were okay until the squirrels got them. But that’s another story.
But that’s amazing. Isn’t it? Yeah. That’s a true story. I used to grow daily is when I was out in Chilliwack, that was kind of like my thing that I did on the farm. And there were a few daily is almost every year that would be infested with bugs.
And my initial instinct was to take them out because I didn’t want the bugs to spread all over the rest of the flowers. And I was like, no, and I’ll use the sun to leave them.
And that’s exactly what had happened. Those were the, those plants for the bugs homes and all the other plant dailiahs were fine. It was amazing!
That’s a great lesson. Yeah. Cause that is always your number one fear. Oh my gosh. I’ve got to stop the this infestation before it gets any further, but sometimes in a lot of cases, it’s nice to have like that sacrificial plan.
Okay, Natalie, what’s your favorite tool? If you had to move again, what tool could you not live without? What would you take with you?
What would I take with me? I think my hands, I’m very grateful that I have hands to work with And I was thinking about this and I, you know, I love to you hoe I just love the, you, you hoe is the hole that’s like has a hole in it. It’s in the shape of a, do you know, do it, do you know what that is?

Oh, it’s so easy. It’s, it’s just really lovely and easy to hold with. So that’s one of my favorite tools and I was reminded of that because I came out here with no tools and it was one of the first tools I bought. Yeah. Was a you ho and then if you’re doing big market gardens, I’m going to do two, if that’s okay.
Can I do a second favorite tool? Yeah. If you’re, if you do big market gardens and you have the comfort and affordability to get a weed torch, then it there weed towards is amazing because you can do your first leading in like, you know, a very short period of time and it makes it, it makes the first weeding after you lead towards really easy because of the beets and the carrots and all your veggies.
Get a good jump on all the other little weeds that are now not there. Yeah. That’s what I did. That’s how I got ahead of everything here too. Is we torched everything.
How about a favorite recipe that you like to cook from the garden? What are your kids like to eat?
Well, yeah, you know, when I went through the questions that my, my kids are older now, so they’re 15, 14, and almost 13 and fresh vegetables have always been their favorite thing. You know, they don’t want them cook. They don’t anything on them. And so I honestly just put them on the side of the plate, carrots, even lettuce, no dressing, everything just straight.
So, and in saying that my favorite, when I think roasted roasted veggies, or like, or this is just with a really nice light, like olive and or flax seed oil and Apple cider vinegar, vinegrette kind of salads one of my favorite things.
And you know what, Jackie and my book, there’s a whole bunch of recipes that are farm-based and that, that people can check out everything from like salsa to hummus, to salads and baked veggies. So that they’re in the free ebook that I’m gifting people.
Do you have a favorite podcast that you’d like to listen to? I didn’t get the impression you were much of a podcaster, or we can just skip that question.
How about a favorite internet resource? Like where do you find yourself surfing on the web?
You know, I geek out on soil health and, and neuroscience. I get caught on both of them and aligning them is one of my favorite people to follow. I did her trainings back in 2005 and that’s for the soil food web. Right? You mentioned her. And so I, I, and I think it’s called the JPI Institute for the biodynamic information.
That’s really great. How about like a favorite reading me? I want to hear about the magazine, ah, treating, Oh, I’m so excited about the magazine Jackie. So that’s probably gonna just be one of my favorite places because I’m working really hard at bringing some of who I’d consider thought leaders and scientists and people who are really have their pulse on regenerative ag and gardening from a farming and gardening perspective and from a consumers perspective.
So I think that’s going to be one of my favorite resources because it’s putting all the really good stuff. It’s kinda like your podcast. You get to interview amazing people and have them all in one place.
Connecting peoples hearts and homes
And the magazine is, is going to be that for me, is, is really bringing resources into people’s hearts and homes and gardens and farms, connecting people with their food.
Looking at regenerative farming and gardening and connecting it to our global health or global health of humanity and our global health health of the earth and how we can influence it and how we do influence it.
Okay. Well that leads right into my next, my final question. It’s real doozy. If there’s one change you would like to see the creator greener world, what would it be for example, is there a charity or organization your passionate about or project you’d like to see put into action? Like what do you feel is the most crucial issue facing our planet in regards to the environment either locally, nationally, or on a global scale?
Our connection with the Earth and soil
Well, I think that’s really our connection with the earth and our connection with the soil and, and, and, and not, and not just connection, like physical connection, but also emotional and spiritual and, and mental connection with it.
So, and I think the more connected and the more deeper, the more we deepen into awareness and connection with our food and where it’s grown and how it’s grown, the more we’re connected with the life of the soil and the life of the planet. So I think that they’re connected and interconnected.
I’m really passionate about creating conversations about how we can change that because when we’re more connected with the earth and connected with our food, we’re more connected with humanity and we’re connected with compassion and grace because when we eat food brings people together, like it’s a really, really powerful and inspirational medium to have conversations around.
Tell us the name of the magazine again. And like, what, how often is it going to come out and like, what’s it going to, what else can you tell us about it?
Heart and Soul Magazine
Well, heart and soul magazine is it’ll be published quarterly and it’s focuses on healthy soil, healthy food, healthy farmers, and health, like global health. And we’re looking at also adding some specialty issues for that are just for farmers. So go, it’ll go really into the, like, it’ll like, like geek out and nerd out on.
Like, I might not even be able to see that say that geek out on some really is some leading research and discoveries that people are and successes that people are having with like microbes and with nematodes and with, with insects and with companion cropping and all of those things. So those will be specialty issues.
Regenerative Agriculture conversations
And the other issues we’re looking at being a place where we can have really, I see it as a plate, like a place that we can bring people together to have inspiring and thought provoking conversations around regenerative agriculture.
what it is and how we can support each other, how we can support each other as a consumer and as a fellow human, and also how we can support each other as farmers and how we can support each other, like the F in the farmer consumer connection, because I think more and more people are wanting to be connected to their food.
They’re wanting to be connected to their farmer. They’re wanting to have a deeper understanding of what’s going on in how their food is grown and where it’s coming from. And this is a really great opportunity to create those conversations and to create a safe place, to have those conversations and, and, and an educational place.
It’s a place of, this is what we can do, and this is how we can uplift and amplify what everybody is doing and, and bring, and to bring people together in a place of opportunity, in a place of possibility and a place of like really fostering and deepening into life
and the life of soil and its impact.
You definitely have to interview Patti. She just she’s full of golden seeds.
Is it ready to order still in the stage?
And, but as soon as the magazine goes, live, those free free subscriptions will probably be removed. So it’s a really good opportunity to jump on board. And then if you want a complimentary copy of my book, you can go to health in a hurry.com. And that it’s hell it’s simple solutions for the time.
So it’s basically how to be healthy when you have no time. And it talks about like healthy, like things that we can do on a daily basis that have big impact on our health emotionally, mentally, physically, and spiritually.
And it also touches on organic and biodynamic farming in the book. And it has some recipes and it’s a quick, easy read. I made it really light and doable. So would love to share that with you too, if you’d like, when did that come out? That’s in 2003, I was on my way to the book lunch.
Oh, right.
And people can probably order that on Amazon. Well, you know, it’s been out of print, so we’d sold, Oh, we sold out of all of our prints and I haven’t and this, so I just recently put it back up as an electronic version.
And I’m working on getting it, put into a print version as we speak. So right now,
I always like to tell people if you get it and you like it, make sure you leave a five star review because that helps other people find it because nothing drives me crazier. Like I can’t find a podcast I’m looking for, and I know what’s out there and I just don’t know about it because their listeners have not left them enough reviews.
Like Angela Watson’s treats for teachers. Like I shirts for teaching podcast all through 2013, 2014. And that’s when she launched, but I didn’t find her to almost 2016. And I was just like, where has she been all my life? And just, you know, how you have those podcasts out there that are just your favorites.
Like when you first discovered them, you’re like, how has this been around for three years? Right? Yeah. Same with books. I mean, especially right now that I feel like, you know, like our library, they finally opened it that you can go in there, but I know like my mom’s library is still closed. Some of the local libraries around two are still closed.
And when it was like curbside only, so you could order books online, but like, how do you know what book your specific library has? And like, I was Googling all these books and I was putting them on hold and putting them on hold and it wasn’t really looking. And then I realized I was getting this error saying they won’t even put a book on hope. Like I thought, at least the three libraries of my County, at least those three, it would move.
Nope. And so I had spent like an hour and I got three books out of like 45 bucks that I had tried to put on hold or something, or look for, you know, cause I thought, well, at least once the library’s open up, it’ll be in the system. And when they start moving books around, cause I order a ton of leverage. Our interlibrary loan is amazing trying to find books in my little teeny tiny library, you know, just searching the catalog is like,
Yeah, I love library soon. I love that you can order a book and they bring it in from across, you know, across the province or cross a state. And it’s powerful.
Yeah. I mean, it’s amazing. I wish we would invest more money in our local libraries in this country in a big way and expand the libraries. Like, I don’t know. I just feel like there’s this huge fallacy that like kids, you need to go to college as soon as high school is out because, you know, while you’re in learning mode, like I think people never want to learn.
I think it’s almost better to wait until you’re a little more mature and you’ve been out in the world and you can figure out, you know, some topics that you’ve decided, yes, this is definitely for me. And this is definitely not for me before you like sink all this money into a huge college education.
I don’t know. I’m sure the whole college thing is going to get revamped in the next 10 years. I think, you know, by the time of the third graders I taught this year graduated in 2026. I think college is going to be a different situation anyway, totally off topic there,
Natalie. Thank you so much. We’ve been talking for like 90 minutes probably like, Oh my gosh, this is a woman ever gonna let me get off the phone with, thank you so much for sharing all your amazing, valuable knowledge with us and just keep up your good work.
And everybody out there subscribe to the soil and health magazine and get the book, which you know, I’m going to order and read right away because I’m super time, you know, staying healthy. And then time is a very difficult thing for me, especially now I have another job on my computer, 40 hours a week working for this podcast or for the summer. And wow, it’s already been a challenge just this week already. Like my app that takes care of like watches my miles, like already jumped from 2.3 down to 1.4 on.
Wow. Wow.
That’s just not good for me. So I got to figure that out. I did hire a fitness coach and he’s like, you need to walk up and down that Hill to your garden. And like multiple times to get up from my computer every 50 minutes, which were like on the second 50, just since I started talking to you.
Oh, that’s awesome. And Jackie, I just wanted to reflect back to you what a beautiful service you give to our community with your podcast. They guess you have on the questions you ask, the connections you help us make as listeners is really inspiring and it’s helpful and it’s resourceful and I deeply appreciate it.
So thank you so much. Well thank you. Well, it’s truly, you know, I love to do it and I feel like it’s sharing valuable information out there and maybe someday it’ll pay a bill or two, I don’t know.
Yeah. And so you make sure you leave those reviews because what Jackie was saying is really true when, when we leave her and other podcasters, good reviews and comments, it helps people be able to find her.
Yeah. Or I always like to tell my listeners, even also like, if you want your neighbors to learn about my show, like when I say at the end, share this with your friends, like I literally am begging you like share this with your friends.
If you know somebody who’s a gardener, like tell your community radio station, they can have it for free that way your neighbor. They’re always looking for content. Anyway. Thank you so much, Natalie. Have a great day.
You too. No, wait, don’t hang up. I’m shutting recorder off, but on using chemicals in the garden, fertilizers and pesticides. Yeah. You know, that’s such an interesting question because Bonnie plants reached out to me and I did an interview with a woman from Bonnie plants last week. And I didn’t realize that Bonnie plants is owned by scott.com, who is the makers of miracle gro these days, I guess.
And so I’m wondering, am I even going to post this interview? I did with this woman now she, they do Bonnie plants to come up with organic plants. I saw them. I bought their plants for years now, but I will usually are not big supporters of miracle grow or Monsanto or glyphosate in any way, shape or form.
I did talk to this woman from this company called soil kit. And she talks about using like, there’s a local brand Espoma. Who’s dirt we’ve bought, like, I even used a picture of the bag of dirt in our Organic Oasis guidebook. Like I was like, if we use anybody, we tend to use this for one because one it’s for sale at our local store, Mike has bought like alfalfa meal. He’s bought blood meal, he’s putting in. But for the most part, like the only amendments we use are compost cover crops and many were from our chickens or like local manure that we’ve gotten from like maybe somebody cleaning out their donkey pen or their horses like kind of stays away from horse.
Like we, at one point got sheep because they think like, Oh, I can’t remember. It says in my book though, but there’s like one animal that like, I want to stay with horses. Like it practically is like, it doesn’t, they don’t have as many stomachs or whatever. So it doesn’t like, it’s almost like you’re still dropping the seeds. It doesn’t process the whereas like chickens, I think process it more so you’re not going to get like grassy growing up or like one thing that people have talked about a lot on my show is make sure you don’t get manure from cows that were fed.
What is it? Weed free hay because they have been fed weed free hay, that means that he was sprayed . That hay was spread with sprayed with pesticides and people who have bought maneuver from those animals have had their gardens ruined. Like there was a lady here who talked about it.
Jacqueline Freeman,who does treatment free beekeeping out in Washington, talked about that happening at their place. Like they had two beds right next to each other. And like the one bed was this new load and they just totally were able to track it down to it came from this manure they got from show.
They always a lot of people talk about that. So we don’t use any kind of chemical, anything pesticide, fungicide herbicides here. All of our inputs that we put into the ground are pretty much organic or is it organic or earth friendly as we can be.
Cool. I just think that I would like to include your podcast in the inaugural issue of the magazine. I was wondering how you’d feel about that?
You would, Oh my gosh. I would love that. That’d be awesome!
Yeah. I think I’d really like to do that. And I was thinking, I don’t know which episode I might, I might put, like, do you have an episode that stands out to you? Well, it’s just like Patty Armbrister is just such a soil expert. And I mean, I want to say my all time, favorite episodes still to this day is Mandy Gerth.
Who’s down in, she has a farm called the lower Valley farm in Kalispell because just love how passionate she talks about the wild organic farmers and how it gives us hope for a new generation. But I don’t know, Patty Armbristers practically crying when she’s talking about saving our planet for our kids and she’s advocate, but I dunno, I’ve had great guests. I mean, I love talking to Jeff Lowenfels that wrote that teaming with microbes series up in Alaska.
I mean, he was to had a new theory “what would Gretta do? and just, you know, I talked to Joel, I mean, Jean Martin Fortier, I still, like, I was shown nervous. I almost felt like coffee all over my computer. And like, I don’t know. I, you know, there’s been a lot of, I could, I could think about it and let you know. Or if you had one, who were you thinking of?
Well, you know, one person I was thinking of putting in the inaugural issue was
Jeff Lowenfels And I didn’t, I didn’t work at reach out to him because I think he’s, I’m pretty sure that’s who it is.
He’s like, I wouldn’t say the grandfather, but he’s like one of the original micro, like he’s one of the originals she’s like, totally.
Cause like he wrote that whole series teaming with microbes teaming with nutrients. Teaming with fungi? Yeah. And I just talked to him in November this year. He was super, yeah. It was not anything like I thought he was going to be, it was a great conversation. Awesome. I thought, yeah. Well just let me know.
That would be amazing if you need me to do anything or I’m not too sure.
That would be amazing. Thank you. Yeah. I’m flattered.