Natural
Matters combines knowledge and over twenty-five years experience with quality
products to provide quality results, and has a dedicated network of experienced
resources to draw from when you need answers. For those desiring a
healthy organic yard, Natural Matters will help provide full services. Natural
Matters products contain certifiable food quality components. Natural Matters
is a small, local company providing personalized service.
Results
of Rodale’s long-term systems trials (23 years of research) shows that the
organic method can be a powerful atmospheric scrubber. Conventional chemical
fertilizers rapidly volatize or “burn” organic matter, releasing carbon into
the atmosphere rather than retaining it in the soil system. The organic method,
through the use of natural fertilizer amendments and vigorous microbial
populations, nourishes healthy plant tissues that will suck carbon and nitrogen
out of the air (scientists call the process “carbon sequestration”), and make
it available for plant growth.
While
soils of this region are sufficient to support native species, native soils
need to be amended to meet other plant’s requirements. Our homes and yards are,
to differing degrees, the result of disruption of the native landscape. To get
a solid foundation for home construction, the top soil will be scraped off,
leaving the ground bare and ideal for home construction, but less than ideal
for a successful yard. The soil components that are lost during this process
need to be reintroduced into the soil.
Soil
building is not just adding soil. Soil building is that which improves growing
conditions. Soil building is the stimulation of micro-life in the soil and
involves the incorporation of organic matter, minerals, and bacteria to
replenish the soil food web (interconnected life cycling) thereby causing a
chain reaction / domino effect of bio-chemical reactions conventional chemical
treatments can rarely imitate.
Soil
conditioning is modifying soil texture, as well as its physical and chemical
properties, with mechanical and/or chemical means—for example: aeration for
oxygen/porosity, pH for nutrient exchange.
Most
of Natural Matters applications will not require additional watering in. Normal
humidity, morning dew, and rainfall will do the trick. We will advise you if
for some reason these would not be adequate.
Soil
building is at the heart of the organic method. When you feed and nurture the
soil in addition to the plant, the soil gains the capacity to feed the plant
and provide for its balanced health as well, it (the soil) becomes the medium
of support or “infrastructure” if you will, for numerous bio-chemical
processes. The goal is a sustainable holistic living system. Not just green grass,
no bugs and no weeds! Yet this will occur, as balance is restored there will be
fewer pest incidents and quicker recovery time. In order to achieve a
successful organic yard, plant stress reduction is the key. Healthy yards come
from healthy soil; healthy soil is the by-product of microbial activity, i.e.
the soil food web. Grow the soil to grow the plant.
Weeds
are a good indicator of soil health, they occur in response to conditions and
deficiencies. As conditions change, so will the weeds. Balanced healthy soils
have fewer weeds; and healthy turf will choke out most of those that remain.
Bugs,
too, are an indication of health. Healthy plants are less appealing to bugs and
more able to recover if outbreaks occur. Bugs are attracted to unhealthy
plants—they are natures “cleaners.” They arrive to clean up the problem and are
the enforcers of the “survival of the fittest law,” eating and excreting,
recycling plant bodies, and cycling nutrient energy for re-growth. Bugs are
part of the web of life. They are not the end of the world. You’ll always have
a few bugs—the important thing is balance. By not reacting with poisons, you
let natural controls remedy the problem. See IPM
for further information.
Nutrition/fertilization
is not usually the primary cause of plant death. Poor growing conditions are.
Nutrition/ fertilization is responsible for establishing and maintaining (soil
i.e.) plant health. If plants are dying or in decline usually the cause of the
problem will be poor growing conditions and/or pest (insect or disease) brought
on by those poor growing conditions but most importantly it’s a matter of using
the right plant in the right place.