Hey you guys, Simon here, with Gaia Green
Organics. It’s Spring 2020 and what that
means is there’s a little bit of distance
and we’re doing a video on location in my
own garden because we want to support you
guys in your efforts to grow better crops
this year using Gaia Green Organics. And we’re
going to give you some tips today in this
video to help you get there, so let’s get
started.
At Gaia Green Organics, we know a lot of you
are actually starting gardening for the first
time this year. So we’re going to help you
take your space and make it into the oasis
that you really want. And what that comes
down to is getting the most success out of
the application you choose to use with our
products.
So some of you might be wondering, why am
I going to use organics? Why am I considering
this for my garden. A lot of people these
days consider it to be about health and choice
and the environment, but the fact of the matter
is that our entire planet and this forest
that I’m standing in right now was built
on organics. And that organic nutrient cycling
between biology and the soil and the plant
is exactly what Gaia Green wants to focus
on. Some nutrients, including chemical nutrients,
are really just about feeding the plant, and
it’s a bit of a cheat. What you really want
to do is you want to feed the soil, and then
what happens is the soil feeds your plants.
It’s a longer process, but once you get
it right, it’s going to last for years and
years and your garden will continue to get
better every year.
So before we get started with different ways
to apply the product, we thought it would
be a really good idea to show you some of
the key Gaia Green organic products and explain
how they work in your garden.
So what we have on the table in the first
place here is All Purpose. This is a great
product for you to choose if you’re really
unsure, or if you’ve got a lot of areas
in your garden that you want to use just one
product for. All Purpose has over 16 different
ingredients and all of them are meant to interact
with the biology in your soil and give you
a better result in your garden. It’s a really
nice well-balanced formula that’ll give
you spring, summer, and fall nutrient for
your plants. And it’s an excellent choice
if you don’t really know specifically what
you’re going to target.
So the next product for us to talk about today
is going to be Power Bloom. Power Bloom is
much more focused, as the name would suggest,
on flowers. So what that means is the middle
number, or the phosphorous, is going to be
much higher on this product than it was in
the All Purpose. Now, this product is an excellent
choice for plants that either, you’re focused
on flowers, or maybe something that you just
don’t want a lot of foliage. Something like
tomatoes, where what you’re really looking
for is fruit, and not just a bunch of leaves
going for the sky. So Power Bloom has an exceptional
array of nutrients and it’s really about
a broad spectrum way to give the soil the
fertility it needs to get your plant growing
in the right direction using organic nutrients.
So Power Bloom is an excellent choice for
a low nitrogen, high phosphorous opportunity
for your garden.
For those of you who are feeling a little
bit more adventurous in the garden, we do
have our opportunity to use Super Fly. Super
Fly is actually a really interesting product.
It’s a single input ingredient and it’s
from black soldier fly larvae. And essentially
what you’re getting is almost like a worm
casting, except it’s from insects, and they
would call it ‘insect frass’. So it’s
going to have some biology inherent in the
material and it also has a really nice balanced
NPK. And the really cool thing is black soldier
fly larvae is actually used in aquaculture,
so you get away from feeding fish to fish,
and you start feeding them insects. So I would
really recommend this product as something
that is good for everything from lawns, to
vegetable gardens, and all around.
One thing a lot of gardens actually lack is
minerals, and this is a really important subject
for people to consider. Especially if you’re
vegetable gardening because, as a lot of the
news you’ll read now tells us, there’s
just not as many minerals in vegetables as
there used to be. Gaia has a great product
that will actually re-mineralize your soil.
Gaia Green Glacial Rock Dust is all about
the minerals. It is from a rock that has basically
been ground down by a glacier over time, and
so what you get is a very fine powder of rock.
Now, there’s rocks in everyone’s garden
but the thing is, they take a long time to
actually break down into the soil. By adding
a powder, you’re going to get a much faster
acting mineralization within the soil, and that 
can really help all the plants in your garden.
Something that’s really important in your
garden when you start using organics for fertilizer
is biology. Now, all around us is biology
in our planet, but it’s not always where
you need it in your soil in your backyard.
Something to consider might be the Gaia Green
Worm Castings, which actually provide a substantial
amount of biology. So Worm Castings will help
breakdown your All Purpose, or your Power
Bloom, or your Super Fly, even your Glacial
Rock Dust. So adding that biology to your
soil is a great way to get the most out of
your organic fertilizer.
A great time to use an organic fertilizer
is during transplant. So I have a new bed
here that I’ve started in my blueberry garden,
where I’m going to transplant a blueberry
right now. What I like to do when I’m thinking
of a transplant, because you’re not putting
it into a container, you’re putting it into
the soil, and so what I like to do is use
about double the application rate that’s
recommended for the size of container. Then
I’m just going to lightly dust it into the
hole and we’re just going to mix that up
with the soil prior to planting. Ok? Another
really good suggestion is to make sure you’re
adding in some water at this point so you
don’t actually damage the plant roots by
the material being too dry. Now this soil
that I’m planting into right now already
was pre-wet so we’re probably good to go
right now. The important thing to remember
when you’re transplanting, regardless of
the fertilizer you’re using, is to make
sure you’re teasing your roots out, and
really get them open. What that does is it
says to the plant, “Hey! Just so you know,
you’re going into a new location with some
great organic fertilizer and it’s time to
get growing.” So just put that down, firmly
place it in your hole, just back fill around
the plant, give that plant a little bit of
pressure, and then right now would be a great
time to add some water, walk away and wait
for your harvest.
Adding material or organic nutrients to an
existing container can be a little bit difficult.
So what I’m going to do here is do a little
bit under the recommended application rate,
and I’m going to show you how to top dress.
Top dressing is really straight forward, what
we’re going to do is just dust it lightly
on the surface. Now the important thing to
remember with a top dress, is the fact that
you’ve just now put dried organic material
on the surface, so what you want do for sure
is get some water on this as soon as possible.
And something you can do is just scratch the
material into the ground a little bit. This
will help get it into the soil at the top
without damaging too much root structure.
What I like to do, if you have something that
is a little bit more mature and you have an
existing perennial container, is to actually
drill it. What we want to do is just create
a couple of holes in the surface. This really
protects plant roots without getting too much
root damage going. So once you’ve drilled
your holes what you want to do is target your
fertilizer right inside of the holes you’ve
just created. Then what you want to do is
just scrape some soil back over the top to
get rid of those holes, and then right after
that you get some water in immediately, and
water around where you’ve just put that fertilizer.
So a lot of you right now might be starting
a new container. Having gone to the garden
centre, you’ve got your plants, you’ve
got your soil in a container, now you have
to decide how do I want to use my fertilizer.
So there’s two different ways you can do
this right now. One, you can use the recommended
rate on the side of your bucket, add that
by the volume of soil you have. So for instance,
this is a 3 gallon container so I probably
have about 11 or 12 litres of soil in here.
So if we said 12, I think then you’d be
looking at about 3 tablespoons of material.
So what I like to do is I’m just going to
dust down where I’m going to put the plant,
and then I’ll actually turn it into the
soil a little bit to work that down into the
profile. Then we’re just going to open up
a nice little hole and get our transplant
right in there. Now remember, you should be
adding water at this point. Right now I’m
doing this for the demo purposes so I’m
not going to do that until after. Essentially,
pack it down to make sure the soil is in good
contact with the roots, let the organic fertilizer do the 
magic and get ready for a full season of flowers.
A lot of you at home are going to have existing
garden beds, and because you already have
root structures and plants growing, it can
be a little difficult to add a powdered fertilizer.
So what I want help you with today, is to
figure out “how can I add a powdered nutrient
to my plant in an existing bed?” So in this
case, I have about 2 or 3 tablespoons in my
trowel here, and I think what I’m going
to do is I’m going to look to put this around
this freshly planted hosta. So I’m just
going to dust the material on the surface
of the soil, around the plant, making sure
you’re not coming too close to the stem.
In this case, I’m not going to be watering
it in right away, I’m going to wait until
the next rainfall to water this into the ground.
But what I do want to do is just give a little
motion on my trowel, and what that’s doing
is it’s making sure you’ve got all the
material just below that surface layer. So,
that is how you’re going to treat a plant
in an existing bed to make sure you get the
most out of your fertilizer so you don’t
damage your root structure, and you get that plant
growing in the right direction this season.
Okay, onto the next one.
