Horticulture Field Trip to Nature’s Way Resources and the Randall Family Farm

On one of those rare perfect spring weather days in Houston, GCH ladies ventured to Conroe and Montgomery for a fun and informative field trip. Our first stop was Nature’s Way Resources, where owner and founder John Ferguson gave us a tour of the facilities. We all know that Nature’s Way is the best resource for the highest quality compost, mulches and soil mixes. But we also learned that the operation includes environmentally friendly methods of organic waste disposal, grinding of land clearing vegetation and recycling of grass and leaves, diverting from the waste stream and saving valuable landfill space. John’s tip for the best looking lawn in town: spread ¼ to ½ inch of leaf mold compost on your yard each spring along with a natural fertilizer like MicroLife. If you do that year after year, the roots will grow deeper and will require much less water, and your lawn will be resistant to diseases like brown patch.

Our next stop was the beautiful Randall family farm in Montgomery, where we met Joe Icet, known as “Farmer Joe”. Joe has been working with Alice and Risher Randall to develop the Home Place garden on the farm to grow food for The Beacon, a center for the homeless in downtown Houston. Joe talked with us about how mushroom compost, wood chip mulch and mycelium make up his secret sauce to enrich the soil and produce an abundant harvest of vegetables for the Beacon. Many thanks to Alice and Risher for sharing their love of gardening and their lovely family farm with us!