"Wool" You Believe It? Put Wool in the Garden!

(Sorry for the pun.)

How would you react if someone told you to put sheep wool in your garden? If you are a non-gardener or a beginner like me, you may be a little confused. Thanks to a conversation I had with Beth Ivankovic, she explained to me how wool pellets from her sheep supplements the growth of her garden and led to the start of her small business, Ewe and Me.

For Beth, it all started with wanting to support the health of the watershed near her house. Someone told her that grazing animals, like sheep and lambs, have a positive impact (but also negative if not managed properly) on watershed health. Her friend, shepherding mentor, and business partner, Jannell Sworski, helped her responsibly start her own herd of lambs. 

Many gardeners are in search of methods and techniques to make their gardens more environmentally friendly. One of the hindrances of this is the use of fertilizers. Fertilizer can provide essential nutrients necessary for your plants to grow. A concern with fertilizers is the potential to have excess nutrients in the soil which can harm your plants. Excess nutrients can also leak into fresh water sources. If you share this concern, it may be time to see if using wool pellets is right for you. Beth says that ‘wool waste,’ the wool left over from sheared sheep, was an underused resource until she started using it in her garden. Jannell, who has an educational background in environmental science, informed her of the benefits of wool in the garden including:

• Helping hold onto water

• Acting as great, sustainable mulch

• Containing necessary nutrients like nitrogen, sulfur, and potassium

• Reducing nitrogen and phosphorus runoff

• Pest control

• Natural, organic material

• Cost effective (dependent on where you source it)

However, leaving wool in your garden as is, without pelletizing it, also has some cons. Wool decomposes slowly, up to two years. This can create a mess in your garden for the next season. You also need to be careful where you use the wool. Since it decomposes slowly while releasing nutrients, it is better to put wool by slow maturing plants. For plants that grow faster, the wool may not decompose in time. Other places you can use excess wool is the compost or in soil around trees. Wool pellets on the other hand are cleaner, break down faster, and can be put closer to the roots of plants for direct nutrient secretion. 

Soil changes with the presence of wool. The plants become less susceptible to fungicides and pathogens and are overall less stressed as the soil conditions improve. More so, the slow release ability of wool reduces likelihood for nutrient run off. Overall, wool pellets help improve the quality of the soil and results in happier, less stressed plants.

How can wool do all this? It’s all in the fibers.

Wool are protein fibers and are made up of multiple functional groups of chemicals that grant it its special properties. If you want to get into the nitty gritty science, read this article by Science Direct. The properties, formation, and length of fibers grant wool with being water and fire resistant, insulating, and allows it to be used in a multitude of ways. I’m sure we have all heard how wool is best for moisture wicking and warmth.

Did this blog spark your interest in wool pellets? Still looking for more information about where to start? Beth and Jannell are happy to help out! Ewe and Me is located in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Their website has additional information about wool pellets, contact information, and a storefront if you decide wool pellets are right for you. When Beth and I talked about how Ewe and Me started she said…

“We (Beth and Jannell)  were chatting about sheep and she asked if I had heard of the wool pellet machines being available. I had and we both looked at each other and asked the question if we should get one! We still laugh about that day because as soon as the question about getting a machine was spoken, we both knew we had to get one.  It just felt like it was a must do!  We are both passionate about growing, the environment, and sheep….it ties all of it together.”

I’d like to thank Beth for reaching out to help me with this article topic. I learned a lot from her, and I bet you will too!

---

Instructions for using wool pellets:

1. Mix 1/2 Cup with 1 gallon of soil when repotting plants or containers.

2. Sprinkle pellets around an existing plant, push them under the soil with a pencil and cover with soil.  

3. In the garden, when sowing seeds sprinkle pellets in with your seeds and cover with soil.

4. When transplanting plants such as tomatoes, peppers, or other favorite vegetable, backfill around the plants with a 1/2 cup per gallon soil mix.  

   1. Wool pellets do not burn roots and can be used with inside plants in the garden. 

More information about wool and wool pellets.