Mobile Lab for Soil

It has always been a challenge to get soil back to the lab and tested for microbial activity before the microbes were killed by a test tube environment. Now we have the ability to test your garden soil in the field which is a huge advantage.
For a quick one minute tour - click here.

As we read books such as The Intelligent Gardner, we see evidence that we need to feed our gardens in order for our gardens to feed us. Not that surprising but it really is not that difficult. Nutrients combined with the living microbes that break down and transfer those nutrients into our plants is inexpensive and what gardening is all about.

Idaho Organic Fertilizer

The next step:
www.gtm-llc has been working on using the correct balance in organic fertilizer to add nutrients and minerals into our Boise, Nampa and surrounding areas soils.

Organic is a buzz word used by many organizations, but unfortunately the regulation of what that word means to the nutrient value in your garden plants is very vague.

The organic farms I talk to often proudly tell me how their food is organic, but when asked if there is the complete mineral loop, needed for healthy food, actually in their soil, I get a blank stare.

We have been working on increasing the minerals in the garden soils over the last four years and several interesting observations are obvious.
1. Plants can be grown with "organic" nitrogen methods which make them grow large and quickly but does not mean we have high mineral and nutrients in that plant.
(to validate this, we challenge you to have Western Labs test your food for nutrient value)
2. We are so used to foods with extremely low nutrient and mineral value, we actually have to adjust our taste buds to get used to truly healthy vegetables.
3. Soil with the correct organic loop is an ongoing process, not as simple as add fertilizer every year and think our bodies are getting what they truly need to fight disease and build our immune systems.

The correct way to build soils with the correct organic loop is to mirror nature as much as possible.

This takes time, time to allow the natural microbes and living biology that transfers mineral content into the plants producing our food.

We have been working on building this through the natural process using worm farms and organic foods reintroduced into the composting process.

Organic Tea needs to be regulated; because is not, there have been a lot of claims and processes not correctly managed. We are dealing with living organisms requiring a constant source of oxygen pumped into them and coming from organic soils with the natural biology high nutrient soil has as stated above.

Green Team Management of Idaho is taking the next step to make it so we can transfer those living organisms and  the nutrients in the compost through what is called Organic Tea.

This investment is in oxygenated tanks while traveling down the road, so the organisms area alive, when pumped into the ground, directly to the root matter.

The Enclosed trailer will actually be a lab with the ability to take slides on the spot of your soil and study them on sight with a onboard microscope.

Green Teams goal is to help organic gardens build healthier soils. Healthier for the plants as well as healthier produce for our consumption.

Contact Ted at Green Team Management if you have questions.

Fall; time to start Gardening?

The common thought is fall is here and fresh vegetables from our garden has ended. But is this really true?

Niki's book may just change your mind. Living in a far colder climate than most of us, she has been very successful in year round gardening. And I believe it challenges us all to re-evaluate our "gardening as usual".

I have done some experimenting over the past two years studying her book and have come to a couple of thoughts to share.

One is that you have to make this a part of your everyday life style to make it work. Time becomes an issue but winter often creates the most time. I have yet to be very successful with the outdoor but I have had some success with using the Garden Kart, rolling it indoors and using the grow lights.

This becomes an entirely new world though in that adjusting the grow lights properly, watching the heat and "tricking" your plants into thinking it is summer is now what you are up to.

Winter Garden

Let's be honest, most of us are a little burned out with the garden by fall. However we need to remember that what we do in the fall greatly effects us next spring.

You've probably removed most of the plants and put them in the compost bin. Hopefully you've been maintaining your composting so you have some to dump on top of the garden at this point. It is also the time to add manure so it has time to go through the biological breakdown. This process actually burns up a lot of nitrogen so you need to do it now to allow for that time. Click here for a good explanation of manure in the winter.


The fruits that we've enjoyed all through the summer are a very small part of the organic loop we are a part of. This loop is made up of living organisms which we have inadvertently farmed without even knowing it. farmers on the prairie didn't have the microscope to see the living biological but they did see the results.

By plowing in the fall the organic matter began the organic composting. The horses and milk cows gave fresh manure to put on in the fall. All of these created that biological loop.

We want to do the same thing only let's speed the process up by putting already composted material and aged manure into the ground.

The Most Important Composting Material

We burn them and throw them away, yet they are one of the most nutrient rich sources of compost we can acquire; those annoying leaves that we begrudgingly rake up every fall.

Trees are plants with an amazingly wide root structure. These roots, combined with the hyphae network, have been documented to pick up nutrients a hundred yards from the parent structure.

From this blog, you should already understand the importance of how plants metabolize nutrients. These nutrients are systemically in the cell structure of those leaves. Leaves that by design are suppose to fall on the root structure around the tree and decompose into a rich soil around the tree base.

If you ever walk through a natural forest, kick the ground and you will discover an amazingly rich soil. This is what should be around our trees and around plants we are growing. Leaves are one of the most important composting materials we can find.

As with any biological process, studies show that different trees in varying soils will uptake minerals in their own unique ways. So the type of tree, and where it is growing, will have an impact on what nutrients the leaves are putting into out gardens compost. All the studies show that leaves are one of the best "minor" gathering plants to incorporate those important elements that may be missing from our diets.
So how do we utilize these leaves? Everyone who has raked leaves, knows they take way too much space and annoyingly blow around our yard and into our neighbors yard.

Step one is getting them under control. You will find a hundred different gimmicks for gathering leaves, (www.avoidgardenrippoffs.blogspot.com), but the best way to gather leaves is simply with your lawn mower. This will mulch the leaves and help them break down faster, as well as make them much easier to contain in a composter.

Composting is simple with leaves. However, be aware that not all leaves are usable. Black Walnut should be avoided and as a general rule, the best leaves, are those that are smaller such as Ash and Willow.

Some leaves are difficult to break down such as Oak, Sycamore and Hornbeam. If you have enough space to store these for years they can be used but if not, focus on those leaves that break down. Here is a list of good and bad leaves for composting.

Do not put the leaves in a plastic bag. Plastic can not breath and they will quickly become anaerobic, rotting into such a smelly mass you can't use them. As shown in the photo, wire that can allow oxygen into the leaves will control them and break them down in a manner that does not create the smell.

Most people have the expectation that by next year mulched leaves will break down into a rich soil building compost. Under the right conditions that can be true, but on the realistic side, I incorporate a small amount of leaves on top of my other composting materials every week. The leaves provide a good barrier to inhibit smells the neighbors may complain about, and as the acid from other rotting materials are incorporated into the smaller amount of leaves, I get a faster break down.

Don't be discouraged if it takes time, that is what organic gardening is all about.

This Quick Freeze

KTVB PHOTO

As you can see by the photo, our plants got caught with leaves on the trees and shrubs, and for many of us, completely unprepared for a quick freeze.

So what does this mean for our gardens and yards?

Shrubs that are deciduous will often break due to snow load on leaves that would have normally fallen off. Gently remove that snow, but be very careful due to the fact the limbs can break when they are frozen. If the snow is dry and fluffy, use a leaf blower to remove the snow so the limbs are not shaken.

If the snow is wet and sticking, and the blower method won't work, I prefer to prop up limbs and branches that are under too much strain with five inch cedar fencing boards you can purchase at Home Depot or Lowes. These boards are wide enough to distribute the branch weight and will stand up well by themselves from the downward pressure. With the branch now protected, you can use a broom to knock the snow off the top.
Many of us still need to prune our shrubs. Frozen branches are brittle from the outer layer of cell tissue crystalizing. If the shrubs are directly in the sunshine, test the pliability by bending an inside branch that can be sacrificed. If it can bend thirty degrees without snapping, you probably are safe to prune them.

When shrub pruning, keep in mind that a motor driven hedge trimmer creates severe vibration. If the shrub is borderline frozen, it would be better to use hand pruners. Proper pruning methods can be seen on this video.

Gardens that had carrots and other vegetables still in the ground can actually be pulled right now...yes, give it a try. The snow actually blanketed the ground fast enough, before the freeze, that the ground is not frozen. You will still see sprinkler systems being blown out as well. So before the snow is removed, and it freezes again, get those out of the ground.

The one thing you can count on in Idaho is the weather is going to change. We will probably warm up considerably and all this snow will be gone soon. So don't panic and be ready for a heat wave.

Soil is KEY

How you build your gardens soil, with nutrients and minerals, is key to true health.

I have been working with Jerry Bale and others on this process, for years now, and the truth is in the results. The amazing health of the people using this correct biological loop, is undeniable.

Our bodies need a large variety of minerals to balance the natural chemistry in our bodies. When these minerals are missing, our health suffers.

Taking pills with a few vitamins is not how our bodies best metabolize these elements. Food is going through a digestive process that utilizes the nutrients it needs. So one quick flush of a multi-vitamin is not how our bodies naturally absorb what is needed.

When we consume a vegetable, the plant has gone through a metabolizing process that has broken the element down, (example could be iron), in such a way as to make it easier for our bodies to take in what essentially is a non-soluble substance. As a professor very profoundly stated, in one of my biology classes about plant uptake, "consider the symbiotic relationship plants have with the fungi mycorrhiza, this is a process where a microscopic living organism breaks down an element that is essentially a rock, and makes it viable for the plant to metabolize that substance." The plant is part of the process that makes your body able to uptake the same element.

Volcanic ash, sea kelp, food refuse that has been taken from organic gardens (not off the shelf pesticide produce), wood chips (from trees without pesticides) and manure (from stock that is not on hormones or on chemical feeds), all composted through the Worm Composting process, is what creates soil that will make your garden produce incredibly healthy food.

You too can produce soil that will help your entire family live a more healthy life.