Growing a Sustainable Future
In an era where water scarcity threatens agriculture across the American Southwest and food access remains inequitable, one company is revolutionizing how we think about growing food. Soil Seed & Water, founded by organic composting advocate Daniel Nowell, has developed an innovative solution that brings fresh produce to unlikely places — from urban rooftops and schoolyards to backyards, food banks, and even parking lots.
At the heart of the company’s mission is the Ready Go Garden Bag system, a mobile gardening solution that offers an alternative to in-ground planting. It’s designed to bring the joy and necessity of fresh food to people everywhere, especially in places where traditional gardening isn’t feasible.
“The bag is made with love and the intention of feeding the world,” Nowell says. “Seed to seed and the bounty in between. No tilling, no weeding, no worries. This bag was designed to make gardening easy, especially for those who desire gardens in challenging areas.”
The Ready Go Garden Bag system transforms the concept of traditional gardening into something remarkably accessible. Each bag functions as a self- contained growing unit filled with what Nowell calls “biology in a bag” — nutrient-dense, living soil developed alongside agronomists. This organic soil is free from petrochemicals and specifically engineered to nurture plant health, enhance water retention, and reduce the need for synthetic additives.
The system’s flexibility is perhaps its greatest strength. The first Ready Go Garden was installed on a Southern California rooftop more than a decade ago and continues to flourish today. Another early installation at an elementary school provides students with hands-on sustainability education, connecting them directly with the source of their food. These success stories demonstrate that, with the right approach, productive gardens can thrive almost anywhere — thereby empowering communities through connection with the earth.
In the drought-prone Southwest, water conservation isn’t just good practice — it’s essential for survival. The Ready Go Garden system addresses this critical need through efficient irrigation design. Gardens can be watered using a standard hose connection, with battery-operated timers, commercial-grade drip tape, and sprinklers regulating water usage for maximum efficiency.
This water-wise approach extends throughout Soil Seed & Water’s operations. Co-founded by Nowell in 2020, the company operates under a mission of “saving water in the Southwest” through regenerative, organic soil practices. The company’s Make the Mesa Green initiative exemplifies this commitment, blending dairy compost with organic amendments to improve water retention in sandy soils — all while gradually restoring degraded land and conserving water in the process.
Beyond immediate food production, the Ready Go Garden system embodies regenerative principles through its seed-to-seed philosophy. By using heirloom, open-pollinated seeds, the system allows plants to reseed naturally within the bag. When a plant completes its life cycle, its seeds fall back into the soil, creating a closed-loop system that reduces dependency on external seed sources and supports true sustainability.
This approach generates benefits beyond the bag itself. Reseeding plants provide food for birds, bees, and butterflies — essential pollinators whose populations face unprecedented challenges. It’s an elegant example of how food production and ecosystem support can work in harmony.
Additionally, the Ready Go Garden Bag system also serves as more than an agricultural tool — it’s an instrument of education and empowerment. Schools, community gardens, and nonprofit organizations use these systems to teach sustainability, nutrition, and ecology to those who may have never gardened before. The system’s ease of use — requiring no tilling or weeding — removes traditional barriers to entry, making gardening accessible to beginners, as well as those with physical limitations and anyone with limited time or space.
“It’s designed so that a second-grader could install it,” Nowell says.
For more experienced gardeners, Soil Seed & Water also provides a comprehensive range of organic soil amendments that enhance existing gardens. Products like the drought-resilient amendments and specialized fertilizers enable backyard growers to improve soil health, conserve water, and produce more nutritious food.
What distinguishes Soil Seed & Water isn’t just innovative products — it’s the company’s underlying philosophy. The company’s grower-centric approach prioritizes practical solutions and honest communication, building trust through transparent practices and certified organic manufacturing.
From a single rooftop garden to a growing movement, Nowell’s vision continues to expand, thereby transforming how we think about food systems, urban agriculture, and environmental sustainability.
“Access to fresh food should not be a luxury,” Nowell says. “It should be a right.”
The Ready Go Garden Bag system proves that access to fresh, healthy food does not require expertise, a certain geography, or particular economics. In a world facing mounting environmental and food security challenges, this simple bag of living soil represents the possibility of a more sustainable, equitable food future — one garden at a time. For more information, visit www.soilseedandwater.com.
