Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Our toll free number eight hundred eight two three eight
two five five. Good morning. I am Ron Wilson, your
personally yard boy. We're talking about yardning with wool. That's right,
yardening with wool. You know, I just I got the
interestired about doing this in this past winter and early spring,
learning more about it, trying to find out more about it.
(00:26):
I think this is an up and coming thing that's
I think is absolutely outstanding. More and more research being
done on it, uh And that's why we've dedicated a
whole hour this morning to talk about using wool in
your garden, and we're finding out more and more benefits
about it all the time. Now. Who got me started
thinking about doing these Well, these two young ladies did,
(00:48):
and they were our first guests on our show to
ever talk about using wool uh in your garden. Who
am I talking about? Well, I call them the Woallets.
That's the name of their company. But they're the Wallets,
Aaron Mayhew and Elaine Becker, and they are back with
us this morning.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Good morning, Good morning, Ron, Good morning Ron, Thanks for
having us back.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Hey, my pleasure. You know, you guys are the ones
that got me started here and I just all summer
I've been talking about using this. We'll trying to find
out if anybody else has been using it, and people
look at me like I'm crazy, But we're going to
get this out here. Well I know you do, Dan,
I get it, but absolutely out stand. I think this
is the greatest thing ever Elaine. First of all, have
(01:30):
you had your dan Alion Rude coffee?
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Absolutely?
Speaker 2 (01:34):
First day morning?
Speaker 3 (01:35):
Every morning?
Speaker 1 (01:36):
I just want to make sure. And then second question
is on your website, why do we get a picture
of Elaine, but Karen, you're standing behind the.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Sheep because I'm usually standing behind the sheep.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Okay, well that makes sense to then I get it
all right. So since we spoke this past spring trying
to promote get folks more interested in using these wool
pellets in their garden, lots of things have happened with
the woolets. Give us an update on what's going on
with the woolets.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Oh, it's been an exciting year. We were fortunate enough
to be awarded a couple of grants, one from Food
Faith and Farming Network and one from the Bound bloss
Futures Foundation, and we used that money to purchase new,
larger production machines which have just arrived from overseas, and
(02:29):
they will increase our capacity by at least four times,
possibly more. We have moved off the farm and out
of a lane shed mostly so our husband's are extremely
excited that that's happened. But we have now moved into
a commercial space which will give us room to expand
with the new machines and kind of our own, our
(02:51):
own spot instead of having to share. We've done some
more education. Elaine is now a Master Naturalists for Wisconsin,
and I am a master gardener. And geez, don't I
missing anything. We've just been going like gangbusters crazy stuff.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
And so I guess the other question here. Have the
husbands bought into this thing? Obviously they have.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Well they don't really have a choice.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Oh well have they willingly?
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Absolutely? Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
My husband Bob, he is helping us right now create
another room inside the commercial space that we're renting so
that we can have a clean space to weigh and
store product. So yes, yeah, both husbands are all in ye,
very excited for our success.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
You George usually handles the stuff, moving the wool for
us and bringing things over and things like that for us.
So yeah, they're they're.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
In cool talking with the wool. That's Karen and e Laine.
Is it Woolet's dot net or com.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
It's woolets dot net.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
Dot net, route dot com. And I didn't think that
that was right. Go their website, well, let's dot net.
That's will Let's dot net and learn more about them
and what they're doing. Great website as well. What is
a master naturalist?
Speaker 3 (04:13):
Oh, thanks for asking. It's a way to learn more
about the entire ecosystem and how things come together. I
was fortunate enough to take a class on water quality.
But there are a variety of different classes that you
could specialize in, but my focus was on water quality
and the ag phosphorus run off and the importance of
(04:36):
mitigating that damage to the ecosystem and having wool in
regenerative AG is a great way to add natural materials
and organic materials fertilizer that's completely sustainable and natural without
adding more phosphous.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
Yeah, and there's a lot of states that are going
through that that issue right now, Ohio being the same thing.
A lot of our lawn fertilizers, you know, basically are
like a twenty four zero ten or whatever. They try
to keep that out. And again when we look at
these like the wool pellets, one of the many benefits
here and what is the general NPK on wool pellets.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
For nitrogen zero for phosphorus and two for potassium.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Nine zero two zero two. Okay, so you get no phosphorus,
but you got a good source of nitrogen and the
potash as well. And of course it's all natural. So yeah,
so what we just can't go wrong there.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
I think that one of the best things about it
is that because it's organic matter, you're actually feeding your
soil micro organisms and not just feeding your plants. People
don't always realize that the more synthetics or inorganic fertilizers
that they put in, they're feeding the plants, but they're
actually starving. There's oil biome and that's what makes you
(06:01):
soil healthy.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
Sure, you got to get that soil alive. That's why
I've always said to you know, if you get that
that soil alive, you know, I always say, pamper your worms.
If you've got a lot of worm activity going on there,
the microbes are going on. If the soil is happy,
you know, it's like you know, when mom is happy,
everybody else is happy. Well, when the soil is happy,
your plants are going to be happy. Correct, And that's
(06:22):
where that's where using wool that's come in. So I
Karen talking about the sheep, and all you were obviously
were the sheep farmer of the whole group here, both
of you, right Lane. You didn't you didn't raise sheep.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
No, no sheep here?
Speaker 1 (06:36):
So how how did you? How did you come together
and say, Okay, I got this waste wool, this unused wool,
and I'm the environmentalist, so let's get together and make
wool pellets.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Always been friends for over gosh, twenty five twenty six years,
ever since our kids were little, and I was about
to run with the idea of the pellets. I've been
kind of working on it in my head with my
husband for a couple of years, and and I was
we met for coffee and catching up, and I was
telling her, Oh, here's what I'm going to be doing.
And Elaine was like, hey, wait a second, this is
(07:07):
perfect for you know, for sustainability, and you're you know,
this is something big, and you know, let me join in.
I can help. So we're already good friends anyhow, just
seemed like a natural partnership and we're complete opposites. Oh
we are. So it's a really good fit. Yeah. We
balance each other, you know.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
What, because there's always a risk involved when you get
the friends together in a business. You never know. But
if you're complete opposite, that's that is a great thing.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
Yeah, it's hilarious some days.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
So all right, so you got together and you said, okay,
I got this waste. Uh, let's figure out what we
can do with it. And you said, okay, so I've
been kind of looking at they've been using us in
the gardens. And then Lane said, you got to be
kidding me. Uh. And you kept doing research and you
found out about the process of doing making it, turning
it into pellets. Tell us about the way you guys
(07:59):
turn that into pellets.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Well, we start with the raw wool, and we not
only use my wool, but we actually have bought twenty
four thousand pounds of wool from the Midwest, mostly Wisconsin,
but a couple of other states from shepherds there. And
we take that raw wool that would otherwise be thrown out,
we shred it in our shredder. The current shredder is
(08:25):
named Wilma and she shreds it with her whirling blades
of death until it comes out into you'll find little shreds.
And then we put it through Betty our pellet mill,
and that is that uses heat and compression to melt
the lanolin that's in the raw wool and then bind
all of the shreds together to form the pellets so
(08:47):
they come oot looking like rabbit food. The most important
part of it is the moisture level has to be
within a certain range or else it doesn't pellet right.
But it's the lanol en that's the magic ingredient. So
we don't add anything to the pellets unless we have
to miss them with a little water once in a while.
But the lannel and melts under the high heat in
(09:07):
the pelt mill comes out about one hundred and eighty degrees.
So that also sterilizes any seeds that are in there,
because I always say my sheep like to wear their
food as well as actually eat it.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, you got it. If you've never been
around sheet before and you're out in the fields, they
collect everything that's out there and including those cuckobergers and
all that stuff. So definitely do a little bit of
manure and mud and all the rest of the things
that go along with that as well. Talking with Karen Mayhew,
and we're talking with Elaine Becker. They are the Woolets
and their company is called Woolets. Go to their website
(09:38):
it's woolets dot net. We're talking about using wool pellets
in your gardening, whether it be container gardening, in the
ground gardening, agricultural farming. It can be used for all
of that. Let's take a break, we'll come back. We'll
learn about more about the benefits of using this wool
and why are we using it for this and not
using them to make socks. That's a good question and
(10:00):
I got asked that a lot as well. We'll find
out more about that here in the Garden with Ron Wilson.
How is your garden growing?
Speaker 4 (10:07):
Call Ron now at one eight hundred eighty two three
talk you are listening to In the Garden with Ron Wilson.
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Speaker 1 (12:31):
Welcome back here in the garden with Ron Wilson. Time
for part two of the woolets. They're the ones that
got me started and fired up about all this stuff.
Using wool pellets as a soil amendment in your garden.
It's an all natural way to feed the garden at
Organic Matter Back and you're using up that waste wool
all at the same time. Who are the Woolets. We'll
(12:51):
go to their website and find out it's Woolets dot Net.
Karen Mayhew and Elane Becker in there with us this morning.
So what why do we have wasted wool?
Speaker 2 (13:01):
Well, most of the wool in the United States ends
up being waste wool, to be honest, because most of
us don't actually raise a fine wooled sheep. So wool
comes in different grades, fine wool being something like marino
or ramblay, something that's used more for garments close to
your skin. You know, you'll hear a lot, you know,
(13:23):
when you're searching for wool garments, you'll see, you know,
one hundred percent marino wool, so that it is the
softest and finest wool grade wise that's out there. But
marino sheep are notoriously picky and fussy and difficult to
grow unless they have exactly the right conditions. Most of
(13:44):
us don't have exactly the right conditions. So, like in
the Midwest, most of our wool is a medium grade,
and so that wool is also good for garments and things,
but it's more like scarves and hats and mittens and
things that are not next to sensitive skin. You can
certainly find wool in the medium grade that is soft enough.
(14:05):
One of my breeds, the clun Forest has some of
the sheep have softer wool that I could use for
a sweater. But the rest of the time, I mean,
most of the wool that's grown here isn't used for
anything because there isn't an infrastructure for wool production anymore,
or for like fabric production anymore. For example, the United
(14:28):
States military, they all have wool uniforms, and that used
to be required that it was US wool, and no
longer is there used to be laws for that, and
there are not anymore. So now all of the wool
for the military uniforms here in the United States gets
imported from China. Generally, the fabric comes over from there,
(14:51):
made from their sheep wool. And then while we still
are required to use the colors, the dye colors are
patented for the US military here in the States, and
they have to use our dye, but they don't have
to use our wool anymore. So what are we supposed
to do with all that? There are no longer very
many woolen mills in the country. There's still Pendleton out
(15:13):
in Washington or Oregon, I forget exactly where they are,
but in the Pacific Northwest that still makes wool garments
and wool rugs and things like that. But most of
the time it's that stuff is all farmed out. All
that stuff comes from overseas. So what are you going
to do with the wool?
Speaker 1 (15:31):
Exactly? And so you guys got to put your heads together,
and this is what we're doing, and we're making wool
lets and of course having a lane involved, you know,
getting that for environmental reasons and putting it back into
the soil. Blah blah blah. It's a great combination. And again,
have you learned more about wool using wool pellets? I
(15:53):
mean we talked earlier. You talked about growing tomatoes they
produced earlier. Obviously the water retention that you get out
of using that. Have you have you learned more about
as critter repellent. I did a lot of research through
the summer, and it seems like and I was reading
I think it was Country Growers Magazine or one of
those magazines they're talking about when they're looking at deer
(16:14):
repellents and critter repellants, sheep wool and lanolin lasting the
longest of just about anything that's out there on the
market today.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
Absolutely. I put balls of raw wool right into my
arbor ide because the deer just think that is, you know,
a popsicle. And the lanolin doesn't melt off in the rain.
You know, it takes a heat of at least one
hundred and forty degrees to melt the lanolin. So you're
never going to get a rain that that's hot. That's
(16:44):
is that hot at least I hope not. And so
and wet lanolin smell is even stronger than dry lanel,
and so chucking that inside your plants where you can't
see it from the outside that the deer can smell it,
it doesn't go away. It just stays there and it
works great.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
Yeah, well it's getting it's getting rate reviews. Any well.
I think what was also interesting is that when I'm
you know, doing some research and you're talking about, you know,
folks that are now making these wool pellets, your name
was mentioned to them almost every article I think that
I read, so the words getting out there about the wallets. Yeah,
so you know, you're learning more and more about them. Again,
(17:19):
you can go to the website as woolets dot net
wallets dot net and learn more about it. So folks
can buy these in different bags, different bag sizes. What
is the rate that you would use woallets wool pellets,
like in the vegetable garden.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
If you're going to broadcast to build all of your soil,
so you just want to broadcasts that across your garden
until it in, then it's one pound of pellets for
thirty square feet. If you're using like raised beds, they're
generally like four by eight, so less is often more
when it comes to adding a woolen. So I usually
tell people a one pound bag does a four x
eight square foot raised bad okay?
Speaker 1 (18:01):
And in container gardens yep.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
In container gardens usually it's about a half to a
third of a cup per gallon of soil mixed in.
I put a little bit more like more half cup
size in hanging baskets that are out right in the sun,
because it seems like they just use it up so
much faster, and so a little bit more there is
(18:25):
good when I'm planting out in the garden or just
planting even in containers. A lot of times, what I
do is just put a tablespoon of willets down in
the bottom of the hole and then add a little soil,
put my plant in, and then as I'm backfilling, if
I know it's a heavy feeder like a tomato or
a squash, then I'll add another tablespoon around in the
(18:46):
soil as I'm backfilling. And that seems to be enough
for them for the entire growing season.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
Excellent.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
Because it's got such a high nitrogen, you don't want
to add too much at one time because then you're
getting you know, of course, all foliage and not as
much fruit, right and.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
Getting go to the websites, we'll dot net wallets dot net.
You can also find mulching Fleece and uh Anya's Moisture
moisturizing soap. Will it make me nice and soft?
Speaker 2 (19:10):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (19:10):
Well excellent. Hey, thanks you so much for spending time
with us this morning. Karen Mayhew, Elaine Becker, Wallets, wollats
dot net. Have a great.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Morning, Thanks so much. Bron.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
All right, bye bye quick break, We come back time
for Buggy Joe Boggs us ballets here in the garden with.
Speaker 4 (19:29):
Ron Wilson, Green Tom or not Ron who can help
at one eight hundred eighty two three talk This is
in the Garden with Ron Wilson.
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Our toll free number eight hundred eight two three eight
two five five. Good morning. I am Ron Wilson, your
personally yard boy. We're talking about yardning with wool. That's right,
yardening with wool. You know, I just I got the
interestired about doing this in this past winter and early spring,
learning more about it, trying to find out more about it.
(00:26):
I think this is an up and coming thing that's
I think is absolutely outstanding. More and more research being
done on it, uh And that's why we've dedicated a
whole hour this morning to talk about using wool in
your garden, and we're finding out more and more benefits
about it all the time. Now. Who got me started
thinking about doing these Well, these two young ladies did,
(00:48):
and they were our first guests on our show to
ever talk about using wool uh in your garden. Who
am I talking about? Well, I call them the Woallets.
That's the name of their company. But they're the Wallets,
Aaron Mayhew and Elaine Becker, and they are back with
us this morning.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Good morning, Good morning, Ron, Good morning Ron, Thanks for
having us back.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Hey, my pleasure. You know, you guys are the ones
that got me started here and I just all summer
I've been talking about using this. We'll trying to find
out if anybody else has been using it, and people
look at me like I'm crazy, But we're going to
get this out here. Well I know you do, Dan,
I get it, but absolutely out stand. I think this
is the greatest thing ever Elaine. First of all, have
(01:30):
you had your dan Alion Rude coffee?
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Absolutely?
Speaker 2 (01:34):
First day morning?
Speaker 3 (01:35):
Every morning?
Speaker 1 (01:36):
I just want to make sure. And then second question
is on your website, why do we get a picture
of Elaine, but Karen, you're standing behind the.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Sheep because I'm usually standing behind the sheep.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Okay, well that makes sense to then I get it
all right. So since we spoke this past spring trying
to promote get folks more interested in using these wool
pellets in their garden, lots of things have happened with
the woolets. Give us an update on what's going on
with the woolets.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Oh, it's been an exciting year. We were fortunate enough
to be awarded a couple of grants, one from Food
Faith and Farming Network and one from the Bound bloss
Futures Foundation, and we used that money to purchase new,
larger production machines which have just arrived from overseas, and
(02:29):
they will increase our capacity by at least four times,
possibly more. We have moved off the farm and out
of a lane shed mostly so our husband's are extremely
excited that that's happened. But we have now moved into
a commercial space which will give us room to expand
with the new machines and kind of our own, our
(02:51):
own spot instead of having to share. We've done some
more education. Elaine is now a Master Naturalists for Wisconsin,
and I am a master gardener. And geez, don't I
missing anything. We've just been going like gangbusters crazy stuff.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
And so I guess the other question here. Have the
husbands bought into this thing? Obviously they have.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Well they don't really have a choice.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Oh well have they willingly?
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Absolutely? Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
My husband Bob, he is helping us right now create
another room inside the commercial space that we're renting so
that we can have a clean space to weigh and
store product. So yes, yeah, both husbands are all in ye,
very excited for our success.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
You George usually handles the stuff, moving the wool for
us and bringing things over and things like that for us.
So yeah, they're they're.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
In cool talking with the wool. That's Karen and e Laine.
Is it Woolet's dot net or com.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
It's woolets dot net.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
Dot net, route dot com. And I didn't think that
that was right. Go their website, well, let's dot net.
That's will Let's dot net and learn more about them
and what they're doing. Great website as well. What is
a master naturalist?
Speaker 3 (04:13):
Oh, thanks for asking. It's a way to learn more
about the entire ecosystem and how things come together. I
was fortunate enough to take a class on water quality.
But there are a variety of different classes that you
could specialize in, but my focus was on water quality
and the ag phosphorus run off and the importance of
(04:36):
mitigating that damage to the ecosystem and having wool in
regenerative AG is a great way to add natural materials
and organic materials fertilizer that's completely sustainable and natural without
adding more phosphous.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
Yeah, and there's a lot of states that are going
through that that issue right now, Ohio being the same thing.
A lot of our lawn fertilizers, you know, basically are
like a twenty four zero ten or whatever. They try
to keep that out. And again when we look at
these like the wool pellets, one of the many benefits
here and what is the general NPK on wool pellets.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
For nitrogen zero for phosphorus and two for potassium.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Nine zero two zero two. Okay, so you get no phosphorus,
but you got a good source of nitrogen and the
potash as well. And of course it's all natural. So yeah,
so what we just can't go wrong there.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
I think that one of the best things about it
is that because it's organic matter, you're actually feeding your
soil micro organisms and not just feeding your plants. People
don't always realize that the more synthetics or inorganic fertilizers
that they put in, they're feeding the plants, but they're
actually starving. There's oil biome and that's what makes you
(06:01):
soil healthy.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
Sure, you got to get that soil alive. That's why
I've always said to you know, if you get that
that soil alive, you know, I always say, pamper your worms.
If you've got a lot of worm activity going on there,
the microbes are going on. If the soil is happy,
you know, it's like you know, when mom is happy,
everybody else is happy. Well, when the soil is happy,
your plants are going to be happy. Correct, And that's
(06:22):
where that's where using wool that's come in. So I
Karen talking about the sheep, and all you were obviously
were the sheep farmer of the whole group here, both
of you, right Lane. You didn't you didn't raise sheep.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
No, no sheep here?
Speaker 1 (06:36):
So how how did you? How did you come together
and say, Okay, I got this waste wool, this unused wool,
and I'm the environmentalist, so let's get together and make
wool pellets.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Always been friends for over gosh, twenty five twenty six years,
ever since our kids were little, and I was about
to run with the idea of the pellets. I've been
kind of working on it in my head with my
husband for a couple of years, and and I was
we met for coffee and catching up, and I was
telling her, Oh, here's what I'm going to be doing.
And Elaine was like, hey, wait a second, this is
(07:07):
perfect for you know, for sustainability, and you're you know,
this is something big, and you know, let me join in.
I can help. So we're already good friends anyhow, just
seemed like a natural partnership and we're complete opposites. Oh
we are. So it's a really good fit. Yeah. We
balance each other, you know.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
What, because there's always a risk involved when you get
the friends together in a business. You never know. But
if you're complete opposite, that's that is a great thing.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
Yeah, it's hilarious some days.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
So all right, so you got together and you said, okay,
I got this waste. Uh, let's figure out what we
can do with it. And you said, okay, so I've
been kind of looking at they've been using us in
the gardens. And then Lane said, you got to be
kidding me. Uh. And you kept doing research and you
found out about the process of doing making it, turning
it into pellets. Tell us about the way you guys
(07:59):
turn that into pellets.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Well, we start with the raw wool, and we not
only use my wool, but we actually have bought twenty
four thousand pounds of wool from the Midwest, mostly Wisconsin,
but a couple of other states from shepherds there. And
we take that raw wool that would otherwise be thrown out,
we shred it in our shredder. The current shredder is
(08:25):
named Wilma and she shreds it with her whirling blades
of death until it comes out into you'll find little shreds.
And then we put it through Betty our pellet mill,
and that is that uses heat and compression to melt
the lanolin that's in the raw wool and then bind
all of the shreds together to form the pellets so
(08:47):
they come oot looking like rabbit food. The most important
part of it is the moisture level has to be
within a certain range or else it doesn't pellet right.
But it's the lanol en that's the magic ingredient. So
we don't add anything to the pellets unless we have
to miss them with a little water once in a while.
But the lannel and melts under the high heat in
(09:07):
the pelt mill comes out about one hundred and eighty degrees.
So that also sterilizes any seeds that are in there,
because I always say my sheep like to wear their
food as well as actually eat it.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, you got it. If you've never been
around sheet before and you're out in the fields, they
collect everything that's out there and including those cuckobergers and
all that stuff. So definitely do a little bit of
manure and mud and all the rest of the things
that go along with that as well. Talking with Karen Mayhew,
and we're talking with Elaine Becker. They are the Woolets
and their company is called Woolets. Go to their website
(09:38):
it's woolets dot net. We're talking about using wool pellets
in your gardening, whether it be container gardening, in the
ground gardening, agricultural farming. It can be used for all
of that. Let's take a break, we'll come back. We'll
learn about more about the benefits of using this wool
and why are we using it for this and not
using them to make socks. That's a good question and
(10:00):
I got asked that a lot as well. We'll find
out more about that here in the Garden with Ron Wilson.
How is your garden growing?
Speaker 4 (10:07):
Call Ron now at one eight hundred eighty two three
talk you are listening to In the Garden with Ron Wilson.
Speaker 5 (10:30):
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Speaker 1 (12:31):
Welcome back here in the garden with Ron Wilson. Time
for part two of the woolets. They're the ones that
got me started and fired up about all this stuff.
Using wool pellets as a soil amendment in your garden.
It's an all natural way to feed the garden at
Organic Matter Back and you're using up that waste wool
all at the same time. Who are the Woolets. We'll
(12:51):
go to their website and find out it's Woolets dot Net.
Karen Mayhew and Elane Becker in there with us this morning.
So what why do we have wasted wool?
Speaker 2 (13:01):
Well, most of the wool in the United States ends
up being waste wool, to be honest, because most of
us don't actually raise a fine wooled sheep. So wool
comes in different grades, fine wool being something like marino
or ramblay, something that's used more for garments close to
your skin. You know, you'll hear a lot, you know,
(13:23):
when you're searching for wool garments, you'll see, you know,
one hundred percent marino wool, so that it is the
softest and finest wool grade wise that's out there. But
marino sheep are notoriously picky and fussy and difficult to
grow unless they have exactly the right conditions. Most of
(13:44):
us don't have exactly the right conditions. So, like in
the Midwest, most of our wool is a medium grade,
and so that wool is also good for garments and things,
but it's more like scarves and hats and mittens and
things that are not next to sensitive skin. You can
certainly find wool in the medium grade that is soft enough.
(14:05):
One of my breeds, the clun Forest has some of
the sheep have softer wool that I could use for
a sweater. But the rest of the time, I mean,
most of the wool that's grown here isn't used for
anything because there isn't an infrastructure for wool production anymore,
or for like fabric production anymore. For example, the United
(14:28):
States military, they all have wool uniforms, and that used
to be required that it was US wool, and no
longer is there used to be laws for that, and
there are not anymore. So now all of the wool
for the military uniforms here in the United States gets
imported from China. Generally, the fabric comes over from there,
(14:51):
made from their sheep wool. And then while we still
are required to use the colors, the dye colors are
patented for the US military here in the States, and
they have to use our dye, but they don't have
to use our wool anymore. So what are we supposed
to do with all that? There are no longer very
many woolen mills in the country. There's still Pendleton out
(15:13):
in Washington or Oregon, I forget exactly where they are,
but in the Pacific Northwest that still makes wool garments
and wool rugs and things like that. But most of
the time it's that stuff is all farmed out. All
that stuff comes from overseas. So what are you going
to do with the wool?
Speaker 1 (15:31):
Exactly? And so you guys got to put your heads together,
and this is what we're doing, and we're making wool
lets and of course having a lane involved, you know,
getting that for environmental reasons and putting it back into
the soil. Blah blah blah. It's a great combination. And again,
have you learned more about wool using wool pellets? I
(15:53):
mean we talked earlier. You talked about growing tomatoes they
produced earlier. Obviously the water retention that you get out
of using that. Have you have you learned more about
as critter repellent. I did a lot of research through
the summer, and it seems like and I was reading
I think it was Country Growers Magazine or one of
those magazines they're talking about when they're looking at deer
(16:14):
repellents and critter repellants, sheep wool and lanolin lasting the
longest of just about anything that's out there on the
market today.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
Absolutely. I put balls of raw wool right into my
arbor ide because the deer just think that is, you know,
a popsicle. And the lanolin doesn't melt off in the rain.
You know, it takes a heat of at least one
hundred and forty degrees to melt the lanolin. So you're
never going to get a rain that that's hot. That's
(16:44):
is that hot at least I hope not. And so
and wet lanolin smell is even stronger than dry lanel,
and so chucking that inside your plants where you can't
see it from the outside that the deer can smell it,
it doesn't go away. It just stays there and it
works great.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
Yeah, well it's getting it's getting rate reviews. Any well.
I think what was also interesting is that when I'm
you know, doing some research and you're talking about, you know,
folks that are now making these wool pellets, your name
was mentioned to them almost every article I think that
I read, so the words getting out there about the wallets. Yeah,
so you know, you're learning more and more about them. Again,
(17:19):
you can go to the website as woolets dot net
wallets dot net and learn more about it. So folks
can buy these in different bags, different bag sizes. What
is the rate that you would use woallets wool pellets,
like in the vegetable garden.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
If you're going to broadcast to build all of your soil,
so you just want to broadcasts that across your garden
until it in, then it's one pound of pellets for
thirty square feet. If you're using like raised beds, they're
generally like four by eight, so less is often more
when it comes to adding a woolen. So I usually
tell people a one pound bag does a four x
eight square foot raised bad okay?
Speaker 1 (18:01):
And in container gardens yep.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
In container gardens usually it's about a half to a
third of a cup per gallon of soil mixed in.
I put a little bit more like more half cup
size in hanging baskets that are out right in the sun,
because it seems like they just use it up so
much faster, and so a little bit more there is
(18:25):
good when I'm planting out in the garden or just
planting even in containers. A lot of times, what I
do is just put a tablespoon of willets down in
the bottom of the hole and then add a little soil,
put my plant in, and then as I'm backfilling, if
I know it's a heavy feeder like a tomato or
a squash, then I'll add another tablespoon around in the
(18:46):
soil as I'm backfilling. And that seems to be enough
for them for the entire growing season.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
Excellent.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
Because it's got such a high nitrogen, you don't want
to add too much at one time because then you're
getting you know, of course, all foliage and not as
much fruit, right and.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
Getting go to the websites, we'll dot net wallets dot net.
You can also find mulching Fleece and uh Anya's Moisture
moisturizing soap. Will it make me nice and soft?
Speaker 2 (19:10):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (19:10):
Well excellent. Hey, thanks you so much for spending time
with us this morning. Karen Mayhew, Elaine Becker, Wallets, wollats
dot net. Have a great.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Morning, Thanks so much. Bron.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
All right, bye bye quick break, We come back time
for Buggy Joe Boggs us ballets here in the garden with.
Speaker 4 (19:29):
Ron Wilson, Green Tom or not Ron who can help
at one eight hundred eighty two three talk This is
in the Garden with Ron Wilson.
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