About Living Soil Solutionz
I specialise in restoring the health of your soil through detailed biological assessments of your soil food web – the complex ecosystem of organisms that create natural fertility.
Modern farming techniques often damage this natural fertility solution. My work identifies what’s really happening underground and provides practical guidance to rebuild soil health.
Knowing the current state of your soil microbiome is critical! Without this baseline information, any attempts to improve soil health may be misdirected or ineffective.
My Mission
To restore the health of the soil food web through our proven 3-step process: biological assessments, microorganism boosting, and natural farming techniques that improve agricultural productivity while regenerating our planet’s ecosystems.
My Vision
A world where farmers and gardeners work with nature’s fertility solution – the soil food web.
Unlocking the potential of your soil ecosystem
Soil Health Restoration
Enhancing soil vitality naturally.
Biological Assessments
Understanding soil dynamics profoundly.
Soil Food Web
Unlocking nature’s fertility system.
Microorganism Boosting
Boosting vital soil organisms.
I am committed to soil health restoration.
I combine expertise with dedication to improve soil ecosystems.
how i got to here
My Journey
I was an orchardist in Motueka for 15 years, growing apples and pears for the export market and achieving high packout levels. I was pleased over that period with the approach we were taking in the application of pesticides: where we had been applying organophosphates every 2 weeks during the growing season, we started measuring pest levels and targeting specific pests only when they became a problem. This reduced toxic spray application markedly, and I can say with absolute honesty that no orchardist I know wants to apply harmful chemicals unnecessarily.
When my circumstances changed I built a small commercial glasshouse and grew hydroponic cucumbers for a few years. In this environment spraying pesticides was necessary: not a pleasant task, but unavoidable. When I looked around for a better way of growing produce I was disappointed: many of the organic farms I visited were growing sub-standard produce (there were some exceptions, where amazing individuals seemed to have got it right). I then moved to Australia and took a break from horticulture, but it remained a subject of intense interest for me.
When I came across Dr Elaine’s Soil Food Web School it all made sense – finally, an explanation for the mystery of the fertility of natural environments! I had been doing some extramural study while in Australia and had come across the distressingly familiar patterns of jungle destruction for croplands in Africa as well as South America, the loss of habitat and fertility, and here was a rational explanation of what was going wrong. It also showed a way forward, for both conventional farmers wanting to move towards more Regenerative Agriculture and a tool to help struggling organic growers who might have thought that simply stopping the use of fertilisers and pesticides would give them fertility. If only it were that simple!
But there is hope… I recently watched a video where an entomologist explain that any plant that was sufficiently healthy (measured by brix levels in the leaf) would be indigestible by most insects. Getting plants to be that healthy might be difficult, but we all want to get there…
Farming is hard work. There is always more to do, more to learn. I am hopeful that my services can help all kinds of farming endeavours to improve their soil health, leading to reduced costs and improved production.