BUXTON HOLLOW FARM NATURAL FARM PRODUCTS
Donald Demers, Ph. D. Co-owner, Zac Demers - Sales, Delia Demers- Co-owner
The Grass Can Be Greener On The Other Side By Mark Berger
Despite the cold weather outside, the season has already begun for farmers and other growers looking to get a jump on the spring. They use the time now to figure it what to grow and ensuring their materials will yield the best products for themselves and their customers. A family-owned Woonsocket company devotes their time to aiding such clients by doing full-service soil testing and custom mineral mixes to get the best results. Buxton Hollow Farm Natural Products is the brainchild of Donald and Delia Demers. They take the time to work with anyone growing anything, from indoor potted plants to multi-acreage farms and formulate a plan to make whatever you’re growing grow better. Demers said there is a reason he likes to meet with his gardeners and farmers. “I want to know what’s going on and have a conversation with the growers to find out what the challenges are,” he said. “I go out and walk the areas, I pull soil samples from various areas on the property, test the soil, find the issues, and figure out what will best remedy the situation.” “Many Agricultural Suppliers will give a stock answer over the phone without going on-site,” he 40 Shop In RI
continues. “That is very different from how I conduct business.” One of the growing trends is cultivators moving away from synthetic-based fertilizer products and switching over to natural products. A major reason for the shift is health: health of the plant, the consumer, and the soil. Using synthetic products, which are chemical based, not only affect humans and plants, but destroys the soil itself. However, without testing, there’s no way to know what is missing from the soil. For farmers and gardeners, there is a need to replace what is missing and the soil needs to be replenished with minerals and nutrients that have been taken up by the year’s crops. Demers offers three distinct soil tests, mineral, microbial, and compaction (which test soil hardness in the root zone in farm fields). Whatever is holding back the farm or garden, one can be certain Demers can make a determination of what has gone wrong and offer a natural solution. When it comes to being a resource, Demers also happily works with landscapers and property managers to make sure soil problems gets rectified. For example, for this type of client, he handles the testing and provides the minerals (in the form of custom mixes, for example) to the landscaping company to apply where and when it’s needed. That creates
