YardSmart

Summer of Love Moves to Greener Pastures

Sometime after the Summer of Love, hippies who did not go to Marin County, Calif., and points north of San Francisco moved east to the Sierra Nevada Foothills.

Nevada County, with its remote and affordable land, became home to many small back-to-the-land endeavors. There were yurts and teepees, trailers and hand built cabins. Many had no phone or power, but somehow that didn't matter. Mother Nature would provide.

My first fruit trees were bought bare root in Nevada County at an odd little back pasture establishment down dusty Peaceful Valley Road. It was owned by a guy named Amigo Bob. I bought a dozen dormant sticks home and planted the orchard that is now mature and fruitful. Bob's operation evolved into Peaceful Valley Farm Supply, which continued to grow even after he'd moved on to greener pastures.

Each year that small grass roots company produced a catalog of bare root trees well suited to the inland mountain areas of California. It was a no frills operation, the catalog black and white and sparsely illustrated. Gradually it expanded to include a vast array of soil amendments and organic gardening supplies. They often used pictures of local organic farmers on the cover and it was always fun to see familiar faces there.

Unlike many hippie-started businesses, Peaceful Valley persisted and grew. Today it is without question the best one stop shop for the organic gardener. Many of their products are exclusive to Peaceful Valley _ they saw a need and filled it with their own product lines.

It is, for example, one of the few sources that carries legume seed inoculant. Legumes transfer nitrogen from the atmosphere to their roots, and into the surrounding soil. This is achieved through rhizobacteria that dwells symbiotically within the legume plant's roots. Rhizobacteria also contributes to much higher yields in these crops. It takes months, even years for rhizobacteria to naturally build up to reach its peak of effectiveness.

In your garden soil there may be few rhizobacteria so our common garden legumes don't benefit to such a short, single season life span. Organic farmers figured out how to package rhizobacteria so you can coat your seed with it or "inoculate" the seeds before planting, thus increasing yields and plant health. On a larger scale, cover crops such as vetch or clover also benefit from inoculation. Inoculated plants are more vigorous and yield far more nitrogen concentrations when they are finally tilled in at the end of the season.

You'll find a detailed PDF file on legume seed inoculation on Peaceful Valley's Web site: www.groworganic.com. It will give you step-by-step instructions for using their garden combination inoculant, N-DURE, sold in quarter pound bags for $2.99. Use it this year when you plant your peas and beans to discover the hefty yields of symbiotic relationships.

It can be near impossible to find easy-to-use organic fertilizer in pellet form at standard garden centers. This catalog always has been my choice for these kinds of products because they were hard at it long before organic gardening became popular.

If you're in Nevada County you can visit their large warehouse and showroom. Otherwise log on to their web site store that features everything you'll find in the printed catalog. Sign up for a catalog and you'll receive two free issues per year, in spring and fall.

Peaceful Valley offers a variety of seeds both standard and organic. Just recently they've added live plants by mail, so be sure to check out their perennials, herbs, native plants, grasses, living perennial vegetables, trees and bulbs.

There's little doubt that Peaceful Valley grew with the national interest in organic gardening and chemical free foods. It's easier than ever to grow organic with a single holistic source for virtually everything you need from soil to seed to harvest.

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