Gardening Must-Haves 3

COMPOST: “Compost is always the best thing when you’re starting a garden. Getting more organic matter back into the earth is always great. We have pre-made compost, bagged and ready to go. It just helps get the microbiology – the fungus and the bacteria – really thriving again. It also helps increase the rate of decomposition, so that way, more nutrients become available to the plants.”

WORM CASTINGS: “It’s another form of compost that has a different microbiology, and the nutrients that are available depends on what those worms were fed. But the biggest bonus to earthworm castings is that they help bring earthworms back, so they help attract beneficial insects. They’re going to help aerate your soil so that it’s not so compact [and] allow your roots to breathe better. They’re going to start to eat some of that waste and to re-fertilize the garden. This is part of the soil food web.”

AZOMITE: “It’s like a volcanic rock. It has all the trace minerals that a plant needs. Trace minerals are the little building blocks of life that really help a plant thrive. Azomite will also help create more nutritious food for you because you’re enriching the soil with things that generally aren’t there – or that other fertilizer [producers] are not putting into their fertilizer. A lot of our fruit and vegetables are not as nutritionally dense today as they were generations previously due to modern agriculture practices, so adding trace minerals helps produce nutrient-dense food.”