For Immediate Release:

Friday, February 17, 2017

Your TODO List
Enjoy the rain. Many folks have emailed me about what they should be doing at this time of your as well as many have also emailed me saying that they feel that the rain is all the trees, etc. needs and they plan on doing nothing else! I love humans! Being human is nothing like anything else on this p[lanet. We can come up with the strangest of logical reasonings!
Yes, the rain is good. It helps to clean out the collected toxins and salts out of the air and soil. Yes, the rains are soaking the earth and replenishing our underground water supplies, but it is incorrect to think that we must do nothing and everything will do fine.
So here is a TODO list for folks in southern California. For folks elsewhere, you have plenty to do also but a little different because of where you live and things like snow!
So here is your TODO list Malibu:
Not in order of importance, they all are equally as important.
Soil preparation. If you have ben reading my column, you would have done this already. By now, the rock dust, compost, and mulch that you applied should have been soaked and almost disappear into the soil. If you did it right, the nutrients the soil gets now would become the food the plants get next month. Living in the hills of Malibu, means amongst other things, that one need top learns how to correctly apply rock dust, compost, and mulch without losing it all to the heavy rains washing it away. I always suggest that you use a rock barrier to keep your soil. At any rate, it will be a good idea to redo this after the rains finish.
The application of a rock dust blend over the entire property is critical. I would also find a source of microbes that you can add right along with the rock dust. Go to your local hardware or garden center and ask them if they carry any microbial product. Many do. If you cannot find locally, then google it and order it online. I will be posting a list of some of the various microbial products I use and where I get them from on my website. It is important not to add rock dust by itself since the rock dust has to be first digested by the mycelium for the minerals to then be available to the plants. The plants receive this mineral soup directly from mycelium in the soil and the mycelium in the root hairs of the plants. The mycelium in the root hairs of plants has developed over millions of years to transfer this nutrient soup into the root hairs of the plants which the plant will then use.
Applications of a good organic pelletized fertilizer over the entire property is an excellent idea. You should buy only organic fertilizers that specially made for specific plants like organic rose fertilizer or organic lawn fertilizer. Organic fertilizers also come with particular microbes added to increase the microbial activity of the soil and thereby enhances the absorption of the nutrients. Organic fertilizers also have more minerals than chemical fertilizers but not all.
Local a good source of minerals. Do not just but them separately like calcium, iron, etc. unless you are a chemist. I am an excellent chemist, and even I do not but minerals separately. I always try to imitate nature and get a blend of as many sources of minerals as possible. Therefore not only do I buy from various sources of rock dust, but I also buy minerals from other sources and blend them together. Google Mineral sources and you will find that there are many natural sources of minerals available. I would write to the company and have them send you their lab report. Look for any toxins they may carry. I personally found out that many good mineral sources are made for us humans that we can use on the plants! I have been using Natures Energy Mineral Complex as my mineral source for a long time now and very quickly realized that it is also good for plants but being in liquid form just means that it should be foliar applied.
Organic and Natural Foliar spraying of your entire property including trees, lawns, gardens, vegetable, fruit trees everything is one of the best things you can do for your properties health. The nutrients quickly absorbed into the plants via the living microbes found on the surface of the leaves. That is to say, they are found there, but due to the toxic nature of man and what they use from pollutants in the air to chemicals in the water, etc., these microbes are not as present as they should be. So only spraying minerals, the plant will not be able to absorb as much. So we can help there. Compost tea is just that. We make compost tea by soaking live compost (you put 1 cup compost, 1/4 cup rock dust blend, one few drops of any liquid microbial blend like Superseaweed), tie into a ball and suspend into 5 gallons clean filtered or rain water. Do not use city water as the chemicals in the city water will kill the beneficial microbes. Allow sitting for about 1 hour (the length of time will depend on many things..more next column). Then Strain into a sprayer and spray the leaves, etc. of your property. You can get an EZOFLO unit added to the bib at where the hose connects, and you then connect the hose to the unit. As water flows thru, it siphons off the liquid inside it and blends it with the flowing water. You then spray your plants with it.
Kool Huh? More next week.
any questions
email me at
andylopez@invisiblegardener.com
andy Lopez
Invisible Gardener