Lawn & Garden / compost

From the featured article in ID GUIDE, Callie Zamzow shares the most common gardening mistakes made in the Treasure Valley and how to prevent them. Drawing on over 92 years of family experience, Callie covers everything from planting timing and soil health to proper watering and plant selection.

Compost tea is essentially a nutrient-rich solution made by steeping compost in water while adding oxygen and a food source to grow beneficial microbes like bacteria, fungi, and protozoa. This “brewing” process encourages rapid microbial growth, creating a diverse mix that can improve soil health, boost plant immunity, and enhance nutrient uptake

The word Bokashi is Japanese in origin and generally translates to the term, “fermented organic matter.” To write this article I listened to one of our recent podcast episodes hosted by Jos and Jim Zamzow with their special guest,Craig Alger. You can listen to the podcast here. Through some additional research, there seems to be some confusion around the origin and direct translation of the word “Bokashi,” the process and benefits are very clear.

We all get that natural spring cleaning bug that creeps in when the weather starts to warm up. This is the perfect time to embrace that extra energy and take it outside! The following are a few items to put on your spring to-do list for the lawn and garden. 

During the heat of summer, our gardens put on a lot of growth. Unfortunately, the weeds can begin to take off as well. Adding a summer mulch can help with your weeding, conserve water and cool the soil.

Have you ever wondered how people grew fruits and vegetables before commercial fertilizers were available? Before World War II there were almost no commercial fertilizers.

The secret to healthy plants is a healthy soil. Everything a plant needs to be healthy and produce comes from the soil. If it isn’t in the soil it never gets to the fruit thus it never gets to us.

For years, the message of fertilization has been a loud and narrow one. When we look deeper and begin to understand what we are buying we begin to ask the question “Is this something I really want to use?” What if there was a fertilizer that was so natural you couldn’t distinguish it from a pile of healthy dirt? Well, you really need to check this out.