It’s planting season. Tips on how to grow a successful garden

By Kathy Feist

 This time of year, many amateur gardeners try their best to unravel the mysteries of gardening. Why do my red peppers grow to the size of moth balls, they wonder. What am I supposed to do with the cardboard? And what is this rot on the bottom of my tomatoes?

Enter Brad Waltrip, owner of The Cantry, which sells organic gardening supplies in Belton. Waltrip, once a lead superintendent for a construction company, has traded his team building skills to soil building, the foundation of a great garden. 

On a given Saturday, you can find a short line of people waiting for his expertise on an unresolved issue. 

“I love talking about plants–how they grow, the rhizospheres and soil and microbes,” he says. 

“Mother Nature does her thing. We just give her the correct tools to utilize to her advantage.”

Waltrip has the tools, which come with the free advice.  

The Cantry (short for Cultivation Pantry) is small. Located at 805 E North Ave, in what was once the buffet half of a Chinese restaurant, the store stocks bagged soil, nutrients, fertilizers, pesticides and more. All organic.  

“Synthetics or salts or pesticides are usually a last resort here. They’re not safe to consume no matter what they try to tell you.”

Consumption not just for people but for the plants as well. 

To Waltrip, organic gardening is like creating a savings account. By using organics, the soil is building up a “savings” of nutrients from which plants can draw food as needed. With synthetic products, the plant is force fed nutrients which also do not stay in the ground. ”Without that feed, they’re gonna die. Whereas if you keep organics in the soil, the plant is going to be just fine.”

Starting a garden

Missouri soil is not ideal for gardening. Its high clay content is compact and provides poor drainage. 

“It’s like concrete,” he says. “Water is not going to penetrate deep so you won’t get deep roots. And no deep roots means no happy plants.” 

To get the loamy soil needed for a successful garden, the ground in your back yard must be treated. 

For a garden planted in the ground (as opposed to a raised bed), Waltrip recommends first tilling the soil two or three inches deep. Then treating it with humic acid and other products to help break down the clay and sandy soils. Over time, this will turn the clay soil into black soil. 

“We want mother nature to do this work. So tilling it up, getting rid of your grass, throwing in humic acid, rhizoles, pumice–anything you can throw out there to give you porosity in your soil–is going to be very beneficial.”

After the treatment, the garden can be layered with two feet of living top soil. To save money, he recommends supplementing the soil (which can be costly) with organic material found in your yard, such as leaves, sticks, compost and even a layer of cardboard. 

Or, to get a flying start, build a raised garden and fill it with living soil.

Living Soil

Living soil is filled with live microorganisms such as bacteria, fungi, and earthworms. It is often made from compost. 

The Riverview brand he prefers, ironically enough, is made in Missouri. The brand contains ingredients such as peat compost, worm castings (poop), biochar, and other organic material that create the basics of a healthy “bank roll” for the plants. Waltrip also carries other organic brands of top soil. 

For renewing old soil in raised beds or pots, Waltrip recommends adding a soil amendment that boosts microbial life.  The boost is usually made of a higher content of a worm casting. He suggests a layering of soil amendment followed by top soil, amounting to no more than two- to three inches atop the old soil. The combination will break up the soil that has hardened and sunk over the winter months.

“The best part about living soil, is that you reuse, you do not rebuy,” he says of the cost-saving measure.  

Plants in the ground

Once the plant is in the ground, Waltrip recommends adding a root fuel to stimulate growth. The one he leans on requires only a teaspoon or two per gallon of water. 

To avoid rot found at the bottom of a vegetable, often caused by calcium deficiency, he recommends treating it with a vegetative booster.

For pesticides, he recommends those made with essential oils. “You can spray it on your tomato and take a bite out of your tomato. It might taste like soap but it won’t harm you like chemicals.” 

Finally, to get the hardy vegetables, he suggests hardening them off. 

“You can’t just have a plant go from indoors or from a greenhouse to planting directly in your garden,” he warns. “It freaks out because it’s getting hit with mother nature and it’s not used to it.” He recommends putting the plants outdoors a couple of hours a day for the first two weeks. Without it, vegetables or fruit may appear stunted. 

Waltrip hopes his clients walk away from their visit understanding the important role of soil. 

“If you’re not getting what you should, that’s because of the soil. [Plants are] in a crappy rhizosphere with no feed, no microbes. Everything is dead, and you’re expecting something to live in it.”