Dont Panic Its Organic, June 16, 2018
Our returning guest is Robert Sjoquist, Director of Soils Solutions, Inc. in Camarillo, California! He gave us such great information last time he was on the show, we invited him back! This week he'll be sharing more about why Native Grasses and Groundcovers are so expensive and what State and Local Governments can do to encourage quicker adoption of these Low Water and Native Ecology Grasses; more about KURAPIA as an alternative grass, the use of his Ground Armoring Concrete Cloth for landscape design and so much more!
'Soils Solutions' offers the most efficient, cost effective, environmentally beneficial and highest quality plant and soils solutions available anywhere. They are partnered with Delta Bluegrass in Stockton, California to distribute their proprietary line of Native California Legacy Grasses which have been proven to require 40% - 50% less water than traditional fescue grass sods that have been in the market for years. Working with Delta they are currently bringing to market a true paradigm shift in extremely low water ground cover. The website is: http://soilssolutions.com/
Guest, Robert Sjoquist
About Robert Sjoquist:
Starting in 1977 with his first company, THE AVALANCHE COMPANY, Robert Sjoquist has always been fascinated with why people buy what they buy and what is the process that sets a value to a good or service?
The AVALANCHE COMPANY was a start-up based on an innovative way to remove snow from primarily Residential but also pitched Commercial roofs. It was an amazing concept and a brilliant idea but the Inventor and company Founder had gone Bankrupt trying to get the AVALANCHE into the Mainstream Marketplace. On his way to Bankruptcy he had rung up over $20,000.00 in Legal fees with Robert’s Father’s Patent and Trademarking Law Firm in Minneapolis, MN.
The result was that the firm, in order to try and salvage something from the account, took control of the limited inventory and all Patents and Trademarks that they had filed on behalf of the company and Attorney Sjoquist was tasked with “Get us some money for all of this” In stepped Robert with a Guerilla Marketing Plan that eventually got the product noticed and successful and he and his Father bought the Patents and Trademarks from the Law Firm and 3 years later sold them for a HUGE Profit to a small manufacturing company in the Midwest. By then Robert was off to his next innovative episode.
Soils Solutions LLC is Robert’s 12th start-up company and it truly brings together all that he has learned and had a passion for throughout his life. The innovative and market making plants, amendments and erosion control products that Soils Solutions Is either exclusive with or, at least, one of a very few Distribution points for will all be centers of their own Worlds at some time in the not too distant future and building the bridges to those new worlds is what Robert LOVES to be a part of.
About Soils Solutions:
Soils Solutions Inc. is a Certified Small Business that scours available markets, growers and suppliers locally and around the World so as to offer the most efficient, cost effective, environmentally beneficial and highest quality Plant and Soils Solutions available anywhere.
Toward that goal we are partnered with Delta Bluegrass in Stockton, California to distribute their proprietary line of Native California Legacy Grasses which have been proven to require 40% - 50% less water than traditional fescue grass sods that have been in the market for years. Our Native California Grass Sods Program currently features 5 varietals and each have features and characteristics designed for different installation requirements and aesthetics.
Working with our partners at Delta we are currently bringing to market a true Paradigm Shift in Extremely Low Water Groundcover. The plant is called KURAPIA and at Delta they grow it as a sod that is delivered as 2’ X 5’ strips that are rolled up and placed on pallets for deliveries daily to homes and commercial addresses across Southern California. KURAPIA has been proven to require 80% - 90% less water than conventional grass sods. In testing at various Universities, here and abroad, areas of mature KURAPIA have shown to achieve root depths in excess of 10’ deep into the ground so as an Erosion Control tool it is unsurpassed. KURAPIA also flowers periodically throughout the hotter Summer months so it is an excellent pollinator for your neighborhoods and gardens.
Another product line that we are extremely excited about is the Concrete Cloth textile matting sold by Milliken Industries. Cal Trans, the U.S. Forest Service and hundreds of City, County and State Maintenance Departments are using Concrete Cloth daily in their repair and design plans as a Hard Armor to protect vulnerable areas from water and soil erosion. Artists, Sculptors and Outdoor Space designers have discovered Concrete Cloth to be an amazingly flexible “Canvas” for creating truly unique visual and structural environments that will last for decades. Landscape Designers that work with Water Features and Water Courses LOVE that they can use Concrete Cloth to create Waterfalls, Streambeds and Bank Contours that were previously not possible. All of that plus the fact that Concrete Cloth has a fabric top layer that is paintable, stainable and almost chameleonlike in it’s characteristic of blending into the environment into which it was placed has allowed for the creative release of dimensional design not found until now.
As always Soils Solutions Inc. continues to be a provider of California Native Seed Mixes for Hydroseeding Contractors, City, County and State Botanists and Horticultural Designers and even to Homeowners with Large areas of land that they wish to keep in a “Native” condition. We carry the highest quality and most intensively researched Mycorrhizals, Humates, Organically Derived Fertilizers and more Generalized Soils Conditioners available in the marketplace.
As the Director of Soils Solutions, I am constantly searching for NEW but PROVEN “better mousetraps” that I can bring to our loyal and expanding customer base.
Dont Panic Its Organic
Listen to
Don’t Panic It’s Organic!
Banish pesticides and chemical fertilizers
from your garden.
The Invisible Gardener is here
to show you how to work with
Mother Nature instead of against her.
What are you putting in your soil? How are you dealing with garden pests and diseases? Conventional horticulture assaults the earth with pesticides and chemicals, sucking essential nutrients from the soil with each harvest. Organic gardening offers a healthier, more productive, and more sustainable alternative.
andy Lopez, a.k.a. the Invisible Gardener, started his business in 1970 and through this show he will reveal how to work in partnership with your garden while consuming less energy and producing fewer greenhouse gases.
Under Andy’s expert tutelage, you’ll discover -
- the importance of having 'living' soil
- natural tree care by understanding the Law of Cause and Effect how you can control bark beetles and other pests and diseases
- natural disease control by using a Refractometer to get Brix readings
- what Brix is and how you can use it for your garden
- the correct way to make use of compost and mulch, and why we make it in the first place
- natural pest control, the Greater the Stress, the Greater the Pest
- you will know what Brix is and how you can use it for your garden
- the correct way to make and use compost and mulch, and why we make it in the first place
- natural pest control: my motto is the Greater the Stress, the Greater the Pest
- organic lawn care and weed control
- natural spraying methods
- how to reduce your garden’s water needs
- what the role of Mycelium is and how to help it
- what rock dust is and how to use it
Conventional horticulture still clings to the claim that organic and conventional growing methods yield the same results. Andy reveals the flaws in this argument, proving organic practices and heirloom seed use can actually increase harvests.
Even if organic and conventional growing methods had the same results, which would you prefer: soil leached of nutrients by chemical overuse, or rich, natural loam cultivated by your own hands and Andy’s practical, proven methods?
A real gardener knows the answer instinctively. Don’t Panic Go Organic - you’ll never regret it.
The Invisible Gardener show will be a mix of andy’s gardening wisdom along with electronic music he writes himself. He is also an environmentalist and his shows reflect this. Listen to him live on BBSRadio.com every Sat Mornings 1 to 1:55 pm pst
