Get In My Garden

Today we meet Jordan Mara of Mind and Soil. He will discuss his company mission, how gardening can be one of the best activities for our mental health, some of the research into specific soil microbes that help our brains and so much more. This is a very exciting and inspiring episode, and Jordan shares about following his bliss to start Mind and Soil, details on how to be involved with his free online workshops, and at the end we dive into the four components of attention restoration...

This is the second part of the interview with Judy Fitzpatrick of Microbiometer. Today we deep dive into microbiology and the workings of the microbial marketplace. We discuss the current state of research, the balance between competition and cooperation of soil microbes, and the environmental influences on these microbes. Then we discuss what some of the cannabis growers are doing to foster microbial balance and why they love growing in soil. Judy shares how the stress response affects...

Today we meet Judy Fitzpatrick, cofounder of Microbiometer. The first few minutes of this episode, Judy shares her back story, her history in medical diagnostics and then about cofounding soil microbial biomass measurement company, Microbiometer. Judy shares about the distinctions of different available types of soil testing on the market, which is very enlightening. She explains the process by which scientists breed and study bacteria in the lab setting to create strains with a specific...

Today we meet Leo Horrigan, a documentary filmmaker with the Center for a Livable Future at John’s Hopkins University. He is helping us understand the food system from farming to food access, and creating educational programs around their research. We learn the five most important components to look at as we repair our food system. Leo shares about a lot more including how farming and carbon will always be linked and about how we are studying the prairies and soil to make sure we can...

Today we meet Hunter Buffington, Executive Director of the Hemp Feed Coalition. We talk hemp as an animal feed, why it isn’t legal for animal feed yet, some of the roadblocks in the US and Canada, and how the Hemp Feed Coalition is working to change this. Then Hunter shares details about cannabis plant byproducts, many of these potentially being animal feed. We learn a few specific ways that the listeners can be involved with progressing the agenda of the Hemp Feed Coalition Directly. Then...

This is the second half of the interview with Nina Folch of Compost Santo. She shares about why she likes composting in the winter, how she looks at microbes in the microscope, and some of the realities of running a Soil Food Web Lab as a career. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/get-in-my-garden-podcast/message

Today we meet Nina Folch of Compost Santo located in Northern New Mexico. She is a student of the work of Dr. Elaine Ingham and others, and I’m so grateful to her for sharing so openly about the composting business she manages, the things she most loves about this work, and some of the challenges they have faced while the business has grown over three years. IF you are interested in composting as a business and are are interested in the details of running such an operation, this is an...

I’ve been wanting to have an show for a while about the benefits of getting children back into nature. I recently read, Last Child In the Woods, now a classic book from 15 years ago about nature-deficit in children. If you have younger kids in your life, today’s interview is with Jenny Bailey co-creator and author of a new book series for younger children, including a soundtrack which is featured at the intro to this episode. The series is called, Tales from Mother Earth, and Jenny will be...

This is Episode 75 with John Craig the master composter who runs grassroots nonprofit, We Compost, located inside the Farm and Food Lab in the Great Park at Irvine, California. John tells us how to get started in composting, some basic methods to try, and some of the experiments they are doing with worms and composting at the Farm and Food Lab. Then he shares the components of good composting and about his composting symbol that he has created for people to use while promoting and...

Today we learn from Tom Marrero of Wakefield BioChar. He shares the background and history of biochar, plus the research and background that led him to start his family business. For those of you excited for a composting specific episode again, I promise that will come soon. So what exactly is biochar, what can it do and what can it not do? Tom tells us all of this and why it is used for soil health and remediation. The last portion is about the different types of biochar and the process...

Today Jennifer Lauruol will tell us about the ecologically-minded area of Lancaster England where she lives and some of the community and research programs they have there around sustainability and food security. She talks about how she markets herself as an edible landscape designer, helping to restore spaces with native plants using permaculture concepts and getting people interested in healthier garden spaces. She goes into how she is able to get suburbanites to come around to the idea...

You are listening to Episode 72 of the Get In My Garden Podcast. Woniya was runner up on the survivalist show Alone, Season 6, where she survived two and a half months in the far northern region of Canada. Today she shares her ideas for how to foster the right mindset and have a high chance to surviving in any environmental conditions, some simple practices we can all use to open our senses to our environments and how to connect with our landscape wherever we are located. Then Woniya...

Today we meet my new friend Kyle Perry, second generation horticulturist and regenerative farmer based in Tennessee. We discuss his two new businesses, Beer Kashi and Native Soil Company and learn about the double fermented kashi he is created from spent brewery grain. Then we talk about his fungal dominant soil product he has created and the awesome bioreactor he is using. We also talk about alternative uses of kashi grains, no-till farming and vermicompost. You can find Kyle and his...

Today we meet Elton Ray James, cannabis grower and lifelong mushroom activist, co-creator with his wife of the largest mushroom growing group on Facebook. He shares how he ended up developing a cannabis business with a California micro business license and what that can mean for growers getting into the industry. Then Elton discusses how mushrooms can open the mind to a lifelong thirst for knowledge, and some of the very awesome visions he has for developing his farm into an...

This is Part 2 of my chat with natural farmer and community activist Marco Thomas in Petersburg, Virginia. We talk more about the IMO solutions, Korean Natural Farming principles and building up the farmers market culture in his city. His mission is to share with his community and teach them that it is possible to feed a family low-cost, nutritious food off a small piece of urban land. Subscribe to the podcast wherever you listen from, and if you didn’t hear the first half of the interview,...

Today we learn more about Korean Natural Farming and making indigineous microorganism solution from Marco Thomas an urban gardener and natural farmer based in Virginia. His mission is to share with his community and teach them that it is possible to feed a family low-cost, nutritious food off a small piece of urban land. This interview will be published in two parts, so subscribe to the podcast wherever you listen from, and hear the second half later in the week. Today, Marco discusses the...

We are back with William Padilla-Brown discussing how to grow mushrooms in a hugelkultur mound, how a myco-focused permaculture lifestyle has benefitted his young son, and then he shares some of the most interesting things he is working on right now such as mushroom breeding for traits and understanding their DNA. William is a great example of a super-learner who is working towards a healthier world. He always has many interesting current and upcoming projects which he will share at the end...

This is the third segment with Casey Ernst and Keisha Wheeler of Catalyst BioAmendments, a composting and soil company they run with business partners, Zach Ellis and Gregory Munn in Northern California. You can follow their adventure on instagram @catalyst_microbe_adventure, and you can follow mine @getinmygarden. If you want to hear more from them, you can tune in to some of the earlier episodes this past several weeks. In this episode we learn the backstory of how two soil food web geeks...

This is Episode #65 of the Get In My Garden Podcast, and today we are back with Steve Abbott of Abbott’s Family Farm discussing considerations when getting started as a market gardener and how to bootstrap your way to profits. Steve shares what he has learned about the importance of building relationships at the farmers market and building your loyal customer base. Then he talks crop considerations and rotation strategy. If you are considering market gardening, you can also listen to more...

This is Episode #64, and today we’re back with William Padilla-Brown who was on the podcast last year sharing about edible algae, and today he shares about how he has set up his new hugelkultur mounds for gardening and what he is planning for a new spiralina pond. He shares some more details about how he is successfully growing, testing and harvesting this algae and how he eats it. Spirulina is basically one of the most nutrient rich and protein dense foods available used throughout history...