TALK: “Growing Rain, Growing Resilience”
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D.I.G. is the only green industry conference in the Midwest to Discover - Investigate - Grow away with knowledge. It will offer skills to improve business, employee education and the tools to discover the latest innovations the green industry has to offer.
Managing organization: Missouri Green Industry Alliance
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Hilary Noonan, MLA, Principal of Syntax Land Design, LLC and Mad Hatter Compost Tea
Her work focuses on making every site she works on healthier through a dynamic systems design focus. She loves the combination of science, engineering, and art that the practice of landscape architecture affords her. She holds a master’s degree in landscape architecture from Kansas State University, 2009, a BA from Yale University, 1991, and a Certification in Permaculture, 2011. She is currently a candidate consultant of the Soil Food Web School. She continues her education at every opportunity and has had the good fortune to study with some of her heroes, Elaine Ingham, PhD, John Todd PhD, Leighton Morrison, Judith Fitzpatrick, PhD and Dan Kittredge of Kittredge Farm and the Bio nutrient Food Association”.
Crazy Growth / Serious Science .... Treat your soil to Mad Hatter Compost Tea (By Christine Hill)
With soil science and compost tea, the point is to treat the natural world with nature in a way that is chemical free. Sick plants, depleted lawns and cracked ground can all be indicators of unhealthy soil. Instead of dousing it with chemicals, Hilary Noonan recommends a dose of microbes in her Mad Hatter Compost Tea. Noonan, owner of Mad Hatter Compost Tea, utilizes elements of landscape architecture, soil science and regenerative design to create systematic problem-solving applications with compost. The success of Noonan’s compost tea comes from its respect for microbes and just how important having the right ones can be for your soil’s health and resiliency. Owner Hilary Noonan visits a site that suffered from soil erosion. “Learning about the dynamic system that should be in healthy soil is amazing,” said Noonan, who has a masters’ degree in landscape architecture.
Syntax Land Design is a Landscape Architecture
Noonan’s pursuit of knowledge drove her deep into the intricacies of soil science microbiology and into a practical application of this knowledge: compost tea. Compost tea is not a fertilizer, but a natural delivery system of microbes that revive the nutrients already present in the soil. The tea is brewed for 48 hours and is made especially for the specific needs of a client’s lawn, garden, plants or tree. After a small period of recovery from chemical fertilizers, Noonan said lawns will see the positive results of a tea drench within two weeks. “One thing people should know about going organic, when you go from synthetics to organic, it’s like putting your plants in rehab,” said Noonan.
