Biochar, sea minerals, magnesium, azomite, livestock manure, organic materials like leaves and grasses, kitchen garbage compost etc are all good soil ammenents. Soil tests are a good idea because they give you an idea of your npk levels. I know It's possible to apply to much of anything so I do everything in moderation. I compost wood chips for my fruit trees. Wood chips are great compost but they are the wrong type for a garden. Soil organisms such as earthworms, Fungi , bacteria etc play a primary role in improving soil so organic materials in the soil need to be high so they have something to feed on. Nitrogen breaks down organic matter such as wood chips but the nitrogen is bound up in the process and unavailable to plants. The point is even when micro and macro nutrients are high it does not mean those nutrients are available unless they are balanced in the correct quantities. I would recommend a good book like " soul of the soil" - by gershuny, acres USA etc.. The original study many years ago on sea minerals bear in mind the entire crop was killed. He applied to much to his corn. The next year he scaled back and had significant yield improvements.

I never ever use chlorinated water on plants or in my ponds, period. I had a well dug to avoid chlorine and flouride. I also collect rain water. No one knows what they are really getting with all of this packaged fertilizer, table salt or anything else in my opinion. The best thing for anyone is to research, study and do trail and era. Use what works best for you in your area. Good old organic compost; manure is good enough for me here. There are pros and cons to it all you just have to try the others ideals or YOUR OWN if you want and find out what best suits you. There are surely lots of ideals that I think are crazy but others would swear by. I think that the ideal with Sea Extracts are even though some contents are not needed for plants to live, they tend to thrive with the combination of whatever it does for the plants, weather it be a mixture of the soil and the organic materials mixed or some strange mystery as for exactly why it works just like lots of things people use and swear that it makes the biggest best plants around. Good for all of them and their ideals. It is wonderful when someone finds something that makes their plants thrive! Phoenixryan, I don't know if you garden in containers or the ground there however I would think that you have sand naturally there. Here in Tennessee we have good old clay. It is probably one of the worst types of soil around as it starves plants because it is a water hog and holds all of the moisture in it's cells and does not release the water to the plants. So some of your good old sand mixed in with my clay and a couple of other things would make some nice soil. Sand with all of it's fast draining properties have smaller water molecules however they will readily give it up to the plants. Now the big thing is where does your sand come from? Sea sand contains salt and iron yet others do not so you have to watch what kind of sand you use too. Now on another note some plants can take in minerals and they are just fine. Plants around the oceans, in the ocean and ect. People use kelp for fertilizer, it lived in sea water? Go figure, the plant was able to use the sea water and thrive but uses the minerals and changes their properites into something new. It came from the sea, lived in sea water yet people use it to fertilize and swear by it. Go Figure? Another interesting article: http://www.nps.gov/archive/whsa/factsheets.htm Barb grow some cheap cheap plants and use some of that Sea Salt out of your kitchen and let us know what it does. Test one with milk while your at it as you would be suppised what it does! hahahaha Tammy

This was a pleasant video on a cold morning at minus 26 here. It is a shame that no one lives there to maintain such a gem. Thanks again for sharing. Caroline

Here's a website that covers our maritime climate. http://www.uas.alaska.edu/future_students/southeast_alaska/climate.html We're similar to the Seattle area, but we get much more rain and slightly cooler temperatures year round. I figure a plant for zone 6 will survive here if it can tolerate repeat freeze/thaw cycles and wet roots. Because of the heavy rainfall, I don't think salt build-up is an issue here. At the end of our season we routinely pile 6" of seaweed on the gardens without rinsing it, and it gets well flushed by fall rains. That's my plan for soil building this fall. I have SW exposure on this bank, but rhododendrons do well here in full sun because we don't get enough heat to damage them. So, I'm thinking about some of the smaller leaved rhodies for the upper section of the bank, and prostrate cotoneaster where it's steep to help hold the soil. I's also like to use some non-invasive grasses, and I love the idea of using herbs! Thanks for the suggestions, and I'm open to more.