Fling Roundups

Sunday, April 2, 2017

John and Bob's Soil Solutions: My Magic Wand

Have you ever stood in your garden wishing you had a magic wand? With a quick flip of your wrist you'd be able to solve every soil problem, zap leaf and root devouring pests, and help those struggling plants thrive until you had a garden worthy of the pages of a posh magazine. I don't have a magic wand but I do have a secret formula thanks to the brilliant minds at John and Bob's.


Thanks to John and Bob's amazing soil solutions, Solomon's Seal and amsonia thrive in the former bed of Death and Misery.

When I moved to Virginia 14 years ago, my soil had been stripped and compacted to build the cookie cutter subdivision where we built our house. The topsoil was gone and it took an hour to dig a hole large enough to plant a shrub. When it rained, instead of soaking into the soil and percolating deep into empty pockets of air, the water ran off into the storm drain. My plants were struggling and I was frustrated. So what's a gardener to do?



My front butterfly garden is thriving thanks to John and Bob's Soil Solutions.

Salvation came in the form of John and Bob's Penetrate,  a liquid bio-tiller that forces the clay particles apart, increasing pore space and allowing water to penetrate the soil. Using a pitch fork, I stabbed holes into the hard clay soil, mixed up the Penetrate, and poured it on. I added their granular soil builders and waited for the magic to happen. 

Because I can't resist a fun experiment, my first application of Penetrate came a few days before a storm. As the rain fell, I stood at the window and watched what was happening in the garden. Instead of running off into the lawn, the rain was gushing into the soil. Once the skies cleared, I checked my beds and could hear one of my favorite garden sounds, the bubbling of water as it percolates into the soil. My magic wand comes in a package labeled John and Bob's.


Orange butterfly weed (asclepias tuberosa) flourishing in soil repaired by the products from John and Bob's.