What We Do
We work with farmers and gardeners who want their plots to be green and healthy in August, using less water, less labor, and no chemical inputs.
We do this by regenerating the underlying soil by means of restoring and supporting the microbiome of beneficial soil organisms.
We use a microscope to identify and document the starting point of your soil. Then we inoculate your soil with a custom mix of good microbes. We set up a system that provides those microbes with food and shelter in a way that fits your criteria, time, resources, and environment, and we provide you with a set of guidelines and explanations. Over time, we use a microscope to track the evolving life in your soil, troubleshoot system changes, and adapt subsequent inoculations until you see the results that you want.
If you're concerned about climate change, this is the answer. It's the destruction of the soil microbiome that is releasing so much carbon and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. We can help you make the land that you care for play a part in fixing global warming.
Featured Products and Services
The "Why"
Whether it's called regenerative farming, restoration agriculture, syntropic agroforestry, permaculture, silvopasture, biodynamics, natural farming, or organic gardening, all of these methodologies promote and leverage the life that can be found in the soil.
Numerous scientific studies prove that a strong, beneficial microbial population in soil does the following:
- Cycles a complete set of nutrients out of the rock particles in your soil into plant-available forms.
- Eliminates the need for bio-cides and fertilizers, because the microbes provide plants with every nutrient they need (not just NPK), making them strong enough to fight off diseases, repel insect pests, and recover from damage.
- Sequesters carbon and nitrogen in the soil, pulling their gaseous forms out of the atmosphere and storing them in fungal threads and root nodules.
- Creates soil structure with pockets and passageways, for water infiltration, oxygen infiltration, and erosion protection.
- Holds water droplets in the soil to keep plants healthy and hydrated during hot spells.
- Holds air in the soil to keep roots strong and disease-free, preventing anaerobic conditions from developing. It's the anaerobic microbes that convert nutrients into their gaseous forms, which then diffuse out of the soil and into the atmosphere as greenhouse gases.
You've probably heard all of this before--these are the things that can mitigate climate change, forest fires, and environmental pollution.
In the past year, we at Lazarus Fungi have looked at so many soil samples under the microscope, from farms and gardens in our area (Snohomish and King county). They all show the same thing: if there's any life in the soil at all, it's bacterially-dominant, even in the most "organic" situation. Often, the bad fungi that cause wilt and brown spot are present. Bacterially-dominant soils promote the annoying annual weeds that we all loathe. Beneficial fungi have the effect of selecting against those weeds and promoting the higher-order plants. Also, strands of beneficial fungi hold carbon and water droplets in the soil! Without beneficial fungi, you see crumbly, pale soil that seems to repel water, and you end up on the chemical roundabout in order to keep your plants alive.
Digging, tilling, compaction, removal of organic matter, chemical fertilizer use, and bio-cides are killing all of our beneficial fungi. The results are reaching into our forests via powerline spraying, drift, and seepage, making those forests more susceptible to drought and fire. Fungi still exist in the soil though, as spores -- at risk, and hanging on by a thread. They're dormant, waiting to be awakened and brought back to life. Hence our name.
After you build strong and diverse populations of bacteria AND beneficial fungi, and you continue to feed and protect them with organic matter when needed, then beneficial protozoa and nematode populations begin to increase. The bacteria and fungi pull nutrients off of rock particles and organic matter and eat them, and protozoa and nematodes eat the bacteria and fungi to excrete the nutrients in a form that plants can use. Populations of these four microbe groups ebb and flow, and eventually reach equilibrium between their reproductive and death rates. At that point, your plants will be healthier, more resilient through heat waves, and grow faster, with a lot less labor and water. Edible plants will be more flavorful, more nutrient-dense, and have a complete nutritional profile. In contrast, when you only have a small population of bacteria, none of this can happen, and you end up needing more water, needing fertilizers (which end up salinizing your soil), needing pesticides (for the insects that are attracted to your nutrient-deficient plants), and needing herbicides (for the annoying annual weeds that now have an advantage).
We can help you by providing the following services and products:
- Assess the life in your soil using microscopic examination.
- Provide explanations and a set of steps that meet your situation and your needs, in order to build up soil microbes.
- Provide inoculations, if needed, or help you create biologically-complete compost and amendments on-site, using the resources you have.
- Help you test out the different methodologies mentioned above to see what will work best in your situation.
- Provide ongoing testing and inoculations as needed, to make sure life is still strong in your soils.
See our shop for specific packages. See our portfolio for past and ongoing projects.
Soil Restoration Work We've Done
The "Who"
Janet Fisher
For now, it's just me. I've been studying alternative farming and gardening methods for a decade, and experimenting with these methods on our acre. So far, a blend of syntropic agroforestry and permaculture seems to work best, but I want to implement more of Gabe Brown's regenerative methods too.
I've been studying soil microbiology and microscopy for the past two years, and I'm halfway through Dr. Elaine Ingham's Soil Foodweb School program to become a certified lab-tech, after which I'll begin the consultant program.
Since I'm not certified yet, and the bulk of my work has been in experimenting with what I'm learning, the prices for soil assessments, etc, are extremely low. In fact, you can probably pay for services with a mocha. Give me a call and let's see what we can do.
Photo Gallery
Fungi growing on decomposing firewood in an unventilated shed. Bad for the homeowner, great for me.
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