|
Soil & Essential Element FAQs
What is organic weed free soil made
up of?
What is in the 5 gallon pail of
essential elements and what is it for?
How much essential
elements do I need?
How often do I put
essential elements on my soil?
My seed packets and
rose packages say "does best in loose, well drained soil" Does your
soil do this? And when do I pick my potatoes, carrots, beets, etc.?
So when do I use my gas
guzzling tiller, garden weasel, hoe, pull weeds, double dig, soil test, buy
15 different organic fertilizers (a 4 pound bag of Organic Kelp Meal alone
cost $16.84 on sale!), add manure, compost my pesticide rich grass
clippings? What are my kids going to do now, with no weeds?
Raised Garden Bed FAQs
Are
these bed systems for residential or commercial?
Blocks are expensive how can
I get them cheaper, in color, or split faced? Why use them instead of wood
or plastic?
My husband & I are retired
and live on social security but with the rising food prices we are concerned
about being able too afford this increasing cost. What size bed do we
need to grow our own food? And what do I do in the winter, I
don't know how to can food?
Why do my vegetables and
fruits, such as tomatoes, potatoes, spinach and lettuce taste
unbelievably better than the store bought ones?
Len: My Son has
diabetes bad and the doctors say he will die if he does not have fresh
nutritious fruits and vegetables, we're interested in your soil and raised
bed system to save our son, can we have a nutrition tester come in and test
your garden to see if there is adequate nutrition?
Summer is too hot for my
shade vegetables and winter comes to soon to grow much of anything, can your
raised garden bed system help me?
Shipping
& Warehouse FAQs
What are your shipping
charges?
Can I order my essential
elements by UPS?
Do you ship outside
the 50 U.S. States and Territories?
Soil & Essential Elements:
A special peat-moss-based potting mixture medium with added
fertilizer; major and 42 minor trace elements, a special non herbicide sprayed
compost made of cotton burr, pine bark wood ash, rice hulls, sand, and charcoal,
all ingredients are sterilized. And Ph balanced for fruits, vegetables,
and flower gardens. (Back to Top)
4.3.3 fertilizer with 42 trace elements. Great care and
cost was put into developing the perfect combination, not too much and not
too little of anything. Len Pense (the Inventor) worked for 20 years and
spent a quarter of a million dollars developing this formula. These
essential elements are needed to maintain soil nutrition so that plants will
absorb the proper amount of nutrition. Almost all commercial
farming only adds back into the soil the major elements and many of the
minor elements are very deficient in soils around the world. Much of
them are deposited into the sea from rain via rivers.
(Back to Top)
To start your bed you will need to purchase with your
pre-mix soil 2 5-gallon pails. You will use 1 and a half of the pails up in
building your bed for the first time and then after your first growing
season you will use about 20 (actual) cups of the Essential Elements (EE)
just before you plant your bed. For heavy feeding plants like tomatoes
you will want to use a larger amount of nutrients than most plants, so extra
EE should be applied
to those areas 1-16" in depth. One 5 gal pail will sustain
a 4' X 16' bed for 2 years. Just order EE as needed and we can ship by
UPS or stock up for several years at a time to save on shipping costs.
(Back to Top)
Your bed is basically divided into 4' X 4' sections.
After harvesting your crop out of these areas, you must add (just before
planting it again) one large cup (furnished with your EE) to that area.
Just sprinkle it on top and work it into the first 2 to 3 inches of soil
with your fingers and you are ready to plant again.
(Back to Top)
My seed packet and rose packages say "does best in
loose, well drained soil" Does your soil do this? And when do I pick
my potatoes, carrots, beats, etc.?
Yes, when you finish building your beds you will find that
you can stick your hand down to the bottom of the bed, anywhere at any time.
This is loose soil and is great because you cannot over water, and when new
potatoes start setting on, you can reach down and noodle them out
without destroying the plant and it will go on and produce more potatoes. The crops love this and gives them a chance to
build terrific roots. (Back to Top)
Len: My Son has diabetes bad and the doctors say he
will die if he does not have fresh nutritious fruits and vegetables, were
interested in your soil and raised bed system to save our son, can we have a
nutrition tester come in a test your garden to see if there is adequate
nutrition?
This is a true story told to me by Len Pense (Inventor).
The nutrition tester did come with all sorts of scientific instruments to
measure nutrition and found them to have twice the amount of nutrition of any
organic farm they had ever tested. The testers also bought Len's soil,
as well as the son with diabetes. (Back to Top)
So when do I use my gas guzzling tiller, garden wiesel,
hoe, pull weeds, double dig, soil test, buy 15 different organic fertilizers (a
4 pound bag of Organic Kelp Meal alone cost $16.84 on sale!), add manure,
compost my pesticide rich grass clippings? What are my kids going to do
now, no weeds?
Sorry, none of those things you will ever need. I'd
suggest selling those items and use the money toward a new weed-free raised
garden bed system. As far as the kids are concerned, when I was a kid
we had a larger garden, 2 acres, and sold the produce up and down the road for
cash. One thing I do remember was, I hated the weeds.
(Back to Top)
Raised Garden Bed FAQs
Both. Our weed free garden soil can be used for home
owners to grow their own garden of vegetables, fruits, or flowers. Or, if
you are commercial you can use our raised bed for high productivity. 25%
the effort to produce the same result. With labor cost increasing this is
a smart option. For example; plant asparagus and it will grow organic for
20 years without weeds. Just check for bugs and harvest, how hard is that?
(Back to Top)
Blocks are surprisingly not very expensive. Most places
like Home Depot or Lowes you can get common block for around $1.20 for an 8"
block. We recommend purchasing colored seconds which are blocks left over
from large orders at concrete block supply places like Consumers Concrete Corp.
We purchased from a block
supplier in Grand Rapids, MI for $.82 plus tax. They had 20-30 colors to
choose from. They also had colored split face block for
$1.25 a block. So the total cost for colored regular 8" block for a bed
would be $52.48 + tax. Colored split face 8" block for a standard bed
would be $80.00 + tax. Cap runs about $.56 a block. Or you can fill
the cores with soil and plant flowers or garlic, etc. to keep pests out.
Block are great for many reasons in this system. They don't leach
chemicals into the soil the way railroad ties or landscape timbers will.
They are less cost than wood, and the holes can be used like pots or support for
trellises, panels, plastic for winter (increase your growing zone by 3) and for
plants that require shade using shade cloth in the hot summer sun. Also
they can be moved to make larger more beautiful bed designs in the future.
Great for automatic irrigation system with laser drilled soaker hoses zip tied
to the panels. The more costly wood or plastic raised beds just can't
compete with our system. (Back to Top)
One standard 4' X 16' raised bed will raise all the vegetables
two people can eat. Use the winter option and increase your growing season
by 3 zones. Plant lettuce, spinach, cabbage, carrots, beats, potatoes, etc
during the light winter months. Canning is easy to learn, there are many
sites on the internet where you can learn to can. Check out our resources and links page and click on
The Canning
Pantry logo. (Back to Top)
Most commercially grown tomatoes are picked green.
Tomatoes get almost all their flavor in the last 7 days of ripening. So
store bought tomatoes do not have much flavor. Potatoes are usually on a 2
year rotation. That's right they are 2 years old. Our 2 & 4 year olds just
love eating the spinach and lettuce fresh out in the garden, it tastes much better than
the $5.00+ small box of organic in the stores. Common head lettuce has
zero nutrition so is used as "filler." Very few people realize
growing their own vegetables and fruits will offer flavors they have
never experienced before in their life. (Back to Top)
Our system is designed to support shade cloth in the summer for
your shade plants in the hot sun. Our 1 layer winter option can increase
your growing season by a month on each end. Our system also has a 2 layer
winter option to make it through a light winter, growing year round. The
only cost for these two systems is the cost of plastic sheeting and the flexible
PVC and a few fittings. Basically our system is converted into a green house in early
spring and late fall. To grow thru the winter there are several things to
be considered: 1. How much snow do you get? If you get very much it will block
out the sunlight that you need for warmth. 2. How much sunlight do you get? If
your garden will be shaded in the winter from tall things to the North of it,
you will have a hard time keeping it warm enough in there to grow plants. 3.
Time... if you have enough sunlight in the winter, but you do get snow... you
will want to have time to shovel snow off your bed covers whenever it snows.
However as another option these would be the perfect beds to put inside a
greenhouse. Actually this is the perfect solution to a crisis
situation (survival garden), of course you will need open pollinated non-GE seeds,
so you can use the seed the next year. There is no reason not to have
fresh vegetables year-round. (Back to Top)
Shipping charges are determined by the total weight of items.
Most bed systems are shipped locally. Common carrier (R&L, Yellow, etc) Shipping
costs vary widely based on location. Bags weigh 40lbs and 5 Gal pail of
Essential Elements weights 41.2 lbs. Most of the weight is in soil and block.
Cost wise, you can buy the block locally in your area and we can ship the rest to
you. Or you can purchase the complete package all at once and we can
deliver it to you locally of course. We can
ship UPS for an additional charge on soil bags, essential elements, pvc, mole
mesh, & fabric. Cattle panels are too large to ship UPS. There is
quite a cost savings for shipping packages common carrier. Local delivery
is available between Chicago to Detroit for a reasonable fee. (Gas & Mileage) We
possibly may do complete installs if labor is available.
(Back to Top)
Can I order my essential
elements by UPS?
Yes, UPS delivery of essential elements
is available please email or call for a quote. At least $40-45 per
pail (very expensive to ship) We need your zip code if
emailing. (Back to Top)
Do you ship outside
the 50 U.S. States and Territories?
No; because many of our products are restricted by customs
regulations and shipping requirements, we can only ship our products to U.S.
address. If you live outside the U.S. and decide to order with us, we will
require a name and U.S. address of someone stateside who can accept the order on
your behalf. We are looking into the NAFTA agreement to ship to Canada and
Mexico. Eventually we are wanting to expand into Great Britain, and
Continental Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, and the Middle East.
(Back to Top)
|
