Yum Yum Mix®: It's The Yummiest Story Yet

The story behind Yum Yum Mix.

Yum Yum Mix® - 12 lb. bag
Item # H0018 		Yum Yum Mix® 2-1-1 Organic Fertilizer: Earth Food

each $14.95
Yum Yum Mix® 'Winterizer' Organic Fertilizer
Item # 99811 		Yum Yum Mix® 'Winterizer' Organic Fertilizer

25 lb Bag $36.99

Item # 99587 		Fall Planting Super Combo

Each $43.96
  • Topic: Soil
  • Author: Cindy Bellinger
  • Keywords: fertilizer, Yum Yum Mix, soil, amendments, Products, mixes
  • Date: July 2003

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I’m presuming you know what Yum Yum Mix® is—the well-balanced, easy to use fertilizer. Anyway, the story behind Yum Yum Mix® is worth knowing too.It all began as a small experiment with no thought of making it a business. But now the product is owned and distributed by the Soil Mender® Company.

It all started back in the late ‘80s when a woman by the name of Donna Bonner got a job at Santa Fe Greenhouses. “I was the Perennial Lady then,” she said recently in a phone conversation. “After awhile more and more people kept asking me to do gardening for them and pretty soon, I left the Santa Fe Greenhouses to do gardening fulltime.”

One day while installing a big garden near Lamy, she used two different fertilizers and by the end of the day had a metallic taste on her tongue. By the next day it still hadn’t gone away. By doing a bit of investigating, Bonner learned that one of the fertilizers had a lead base and the other was also chemically driven.

“So I began thinking about this…what am I trying to do? And realized I needed to feed the soil that feeds the plants.” And from there one thing led to another.

Not easily, Bonner located in bulk the six ingredients that are still in Yum Yum today—alfalfa meal, cottonseed meal, greensand, kelp meal, trace mineral fertilizer and phosphate.

“I got down on the ground and mixed it all by hand. Then when I started using it, the plants said, ‘Yum, yum,’ and so that’s what I called it,” she said. “Then other gardeners told me I should sell the mix, but it never occurred to me to put it in bags. I was just putting it in the soil.”

But the gardens where she used her experimental mix began showing a new vitality, and the owner of one garden offered some venture capital for her to go into business. Soon she had trucks bringing loads of the different ingredients to a big barn where she bagged it. She did this for about three years. Then when she went looking for a good compost, she came into contact with Greg Birkenfeld, a man from Texas who was just getting started in the compost business. He hadn’t yet named his company Soil Mender®.

“Greg and I are from the same part of Texas and we got on beautifully, and I trust him completely,” said Bonner. “And he had it so together. His business was so organized that I finally asked if he’d mix and bag for me. And he said he would.”

“So I got a line of credit and began having trucks deliver 44,000 pounds of ingredients to his barns in Texas.” Then no sooner had they worked out those details when Bonner realized she didn’t want to do this anymore. “I wanted to be a gardener, not a businesswoman. It was getting too big.” So she and Greg worked out some more details, and Bonner no longer owns Yum Yum Mix®.

“But I have another product I’ve come up with,” she said, talking excitedly about a mix she’s been working with for almost a year. “I call it The Complete. It blends Soil Mender® Top Soil, Yum Yum and humate.”

Humate is fossilized compost that is mined near Cuba, NM. Before being added to The Complete, it is finely ground.

David Salman, president and chief horticulturist of Santa Fe Greenhouses, says this new product, which he can special order, “is the ultimate in soil conditioners. Donna has an innate sense about what’s good for soils.””

When it comes to Yum Yum Mix®, Salman also has nothing but praise. “I don’t plant anything without it. It really is miraculous.”

Yum Yum Mix® is a rich source of major nutrient elements and is free of animal products, petrochemicals, and sewage sludge. It improves soil tilth, moisture retention, plant vigor, and stress resistance.

Used regularly, Yum Yum Mix® helps balance the pH and create a naturally fertile soil. It’s perfect for growing all annuals, perennials, vegetables, lawns, trees and shrubs.