It's All About Micro-nutrients In Soil

At the heart of every Backyard Farmers Family Food Garden system is our soil. It's really all about soil isn't it?  Four hundred years ago when the first wave of adventurous Europeans set foot on the shores of North America, the observations they made regarding the physical superiority and health of the indigenous population has been repeatedly well documented.

Why were these people so healthy?  Their bodies straight and lean, their teeth decay-free, and the musculature and skeletal structures of even older family members so well preserved?   Numerous researchers now believe that one of the primary reasons for this profound level of well-being was due to the density of macro and micro-nutrients found in the "virgin" soils at that time.  These nutrients were in turn absorbed by the natives who ate the plants and animals that relied upon these soils for their nutrition.

So what does this all mean when it comes to fertilizers for plants, in particular the levels of important micro-nutrients in vegetables ?

For starters Backyard Farmers has made the commitment to look to our past to improve our future.  To do this we took a look back in time and decided to formulate our vegetable fertilizers to emulate how those that came before us ensured proper levels of nutrients even when they began agrarian activities, and how they avoided one of the biggest challenges facing us all today: Deficiencies of Micro-nutrients in our diets.

The soils that our industrial scale farms produce the vast majority of our food stocks on have, for years, been treated with herbicides, pesticides, and synthetic fertilizers. These compounds not only pose their own set of health risks for cancers and other auto-immune and endocrine disruption, but collectively they have vastly depleted our agricultural soils of the microbial life forms necessary for enabling plants to uptake a wide range of micro-nutrients.  This in turn leads to deficiencies in many American's diets, and this can lead to all sorts of long term health problems.

We offer our raised vegetable gardening bed systems with our custom compost/topsoil  blend and organic fertilizer/amendment, because we know how critical it is to have a soil teaming with life at the microbial level in order to guarantee proper plant nutrient absorption.  What this translates to is fruits and vegetables packed with a wide range of nutrients, including flavanoids which not only aid in mineral absorption, but are also believed to be responsible for that amazing flavor associated with a freshly picked organic carrot or strawberry.

Getting down and dirty:   Our compost/topsoil blend is as good as it gets, but even it isn't perfect.  After running a complete battery of soil tests to find out exactly what nutrients were in our topsoils and which ones might be deficient, our soils guru, Roger Hill was able to formulate a scientifically based soil amendment fertilizer specifically engineered for our unique soil blend so as to completely balance and maximize all the nutrients in the vegetables that the soil will produce. As our company expands we will continue to develop additional "customized" soil amendment/fertilizer blends by region.

NATIVE GOODNESS ... 

Our proprietary organic soil fertilizer amendment was a result of meetings with our gardening guru Eliot Coleman, our soils expert, Roger Hill, and was put together by our organic fertilizer blender in the mid-Atlantic region.  The result is a blend that will ensure vigorous growth, disease and pest-resistance (a tip from Eliot Coleman was to use crab meal to keep soil nematodes at bay), and maximum yields with the most intense flavor and nutritional levels possible.

So why the name "Native Goodness" ? 

Pretty simple.  For thousands of years, American Indians who lived right where our houses now stand, managed the land to be as productive as possible. By regularly burning and rotating crop growing areas, and fertilizing with compost, particularly fish scraps, they were able to maintain high levels of nutrients and healthy, low-maintenance plants that were resistant to disease.  The "three sisters" plantings of corn, squash, and beans planted together are perhaps the most well known plantings.  This was an early form and proven method of companion planting.

We named our fertilizer Native Goodness because we mimic indigenous methodology by utilizing ocean-born nutrients along with worm castings (from the forest - the rotational piece of the equation) and balance this with "Bio-char" - a recent discovery for immensely improving soil vitality.  This ingredient simulates the periodic burning by indigenous peoples that would stimulate significant plant growth and vigor.  There are other special ingredients too, but we just can't give all our secrets away....!

Native Goodness organic vegetable fertilizer is like no other.  A ten pound bag is included with each raised garden bed ordered from Backyard Farmers.   It is also sold individually, and a 10 lb. bag is recommended per bed each year to ensure your garden's vitality and to keep those micro-nutrients coursing through you family member's bodies. This does not eliminate the need for on site composting - that is something we still recommend.

Native Goodness also makes a great gift item for anyone you know interested in gardening or healthy lifestyles.

Click below to buy THE easiest and most efficient raised bed in the gardening industry