Gardeners: Montana-Made Microbial Soil Stimulant is Now at Ace Hardware

I realize Spring is still nearly two months away - it falls on March 20th this year - and Montana gardeners are at least that far away from starting our seedlings indoors or under a cold frame or greenhouse. That doesn't mean we're not starting to map out our 2025 garden plots. Now is the best time to get prepared.

Browsing online seed catalogs, picking fun heirloom varieties, shopping for soil amendments, plotting rows, and rerouting our garden irrigation is half the fun of growing vegetables, plants, and flowers for many of us. Pulling weeds sucks, but the annual garden dream in your head is always fun, right?

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With Montana's short growing season (the last hard frost in the Billings area is typically mid-May) and our less-than-ideal soil, gardening in the Treasure State can be a challenge. Much of our backyard garden soil is either: too rocky, has too much compacted clay, is too sandy, has too much alkaline, or... too much pick-your-local-soil problem.

I follow various gardening and grower groups on social media and recently discovered a made-in-Montana microbial soil amendment that I want to check out this year. It's called Soil Diva, and it was created by Julie Grebe, an eastern MT farm girl and MSU grad with 30 years in the industry.

Soil Diva offers two formulas, with similar but different purposes.

Regular Soil Diva is an all-natural, safe for humans and pets, microbial growth stimulator. I'm far from an ag scientist, but over the years I've learned that a healthy soil full of living microbes makes a huge difference in plant health. It helps with nutrient absorption and generally makes plants happy.

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The company's other product is called Soil Diva RECLAIM and it's designed to help counteract the harmful effects of herbicide-contaminated soil in yards, gardens, or flower beds.

Soil Diva is reportedly available on most Montana Ace Hardware shelves, although I've yet to verify this at my local Ace. I love seeing Made in Montana products getting attention and shelf space in big retailers. As an organic gardener in Big Sky Country, I plan to add their soil amendment to my garden feeding schedule this year.