Many people think dirt is just dirt. But for Suzy and Al Newsom, a husband-wife team in Raleigh, North Carolina and founders of Latina woman-owned gardening brand Good Dirt, soil is a living, breathing entity and should be treated as such through proper care and nutrition.
Roughly 10 years ago, Al, who spent his entire career in the gardening industry, was becoming increasingly dissatisfied with potting mixes available to commercial growers and retailers. The different soils he tried growing things in just weren’t producing the results he was looking or hoping for; which got him thinking: Why isn’t this working, and can I do it better myself?
“It got to the point where I was like, ‘Hey, I’m a horticulturist. I’m a consultant to commercial growers … and I can’t figure this out? I can find something better than that,’” Al says, thus launching him into a fact-finding mission as to why his leafy friends weren’t growing to their full potential.