garden tips: Eat. Grow. Enjoy!

Our goal is to help you achieve your goal of growing beautiful flowers and your own good food, eating healthily, and feeling great.

As growers ourselves, we believe firstly in the importance of healthy soil.

Natural soils are full of organic matter, which is so valuable to plants in many ways! It holds water to keep plants moist during dry times, it fosters beneficial bacteria and nematodes which fight plant diseases, and it makes it easy for plant roots to expand through the soil and get the nutrition they need.

Unfortunately, most gardeners are starting with a steep uphill climb to achive good soil conditions! When homes are built, usually the first step is for a bulldozer to push all the topsoil (the good stuff) into a big pile on the side of your lot. Then a huge hole is dug for the home's foundation. The soil that is dug up from under your house - mineral soil from deep in the earth, which does not provide any nutrients for plants - is then spread all around your house when the foundation is backfilled. And you thought you had a black thumb! You don't! You just weren't given the right conditions to start with - but we can help you change all that!

We offer organic COMPOST, made from composted manure, fall leaves, peat, and added minerals and nutrients. Also important to improving your soil are amendments such as GREENSAND and PEAT. Organic fertilizers that can be added in smaller quantities to feed specific plants are BONEMEAL, BLOODMEAL, FISH EMULSION, LIQUID KELP, and more.

We recommend staying away from conventional fertilizers, which are made from petrochemicals - that's right, the same stuff as the gasoline you burn in your car, the same stuff that runs oil burner in your house, the same stuff that makes us dependent on the Middle East. Fertilizer like 30-30-30 is PLANT CRACK! It will make your plants grow like crazy - but then get exhausted and die on you. Veggie plants will just get tall and gangly. This is what the conventional fertilizer industry doesn't want you to realize - even plants need a rest sometimes, slow and steady wins the race.

To read growing tips directly from Garden Center manager Katie Green, go to her blog,

APRONS and OVERALLS!