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Your garden is growing big, green plants—but where’s the harvest? The answer might be hiding beneath your feet.

In this episode of Harvesting Wisdom, host Mike McMahon welcomes homesteader and soil consultant Landen Schaelling for a conversation about soil microbes, composting, and growing food in Northern Arizona’s high desert.

After a disappointing growing season, Landen began looking beyond soil texture and into the microscopic life supporting his plants. He shares how that experience shaped his approach to gardening, led him into soil consulting, and inspired his work with microbial fermentations.

From feeding a family of seven to saving locally adapted seeds, this conversation explores the experiments, setbacks, and discoveries behind more than a decade of homesteading.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Growing food through extreme temperature swings and unpredictable frost dates
• Extending the growing season with row covers
• Saving seeds and experimenting with crop varieties
• How Landen’s unsuccessful market garden changed his direction
• Microbe Master Mix and his approach to microbial fermentation
• Fungi, protozoa, and examining compost under a microscope
• Windrow composting and Johnson-Su composting
• Balancing family life, homesteading, and a consulting business

About our guest:

Landen Schaelling is a Northern Arizona homesteader, soil consultant, and founder of Sacred Soil Solutions. His work combines permaculture, soil microscopy, microbial inputs, and education for gardeners, homesteaders, and farmers.

Connect with Landen:

Instagram: @sacredsoilsolutions
Learning community: Sacred Soil Solutions

Explore Harvesting Wisdom:

Visit harvestingwisdompodcast.org for more conversations and resources.

Join the conversation:

What’s your biggest gardening challenge—soil, weather, or getting your plants to produce? Tell us in the comments.

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