Easy, Organic Ways to Improve Your Soil!

“Grow a Homestead-Style Food Garden,” the workshop I teach at the local community college, was back in session this week! I had a number of interesting questions and tips from students—particularly on topics that have come up in previous classes.

So I figured there are lots of gardeners out there who might be interested in the same issues as these passionate gardening students!  

We had lots of discussions about how to amend your soil and increase its fertility:

Many folks were planting a garden for the first time at a new home, or their food planting areas were being newly cultivated. One student had plants that hadn’t done well last season, so she had her soil tested. The test indicated it was deficient in a number of essential minerals and nutrients.

To me, homestead-style gardening means generally avoiding chemical fertilizers and soil amendments. So to improve your soil, you can’t go wrong adding organic matter to your planting beds! You might try:

*Leaves or leaf mulch (partially decomposed leaves) 

I use materials that are abundant on our place: bracken fern from the woods, and leaves from our Japanese maple trees. The maples have very small leaves, so they break down more quickly than larger ones. I've found that top dressing with dried bracken fern has improved fertility in all my beds. 

*Grass clippings (from grass not treated with Weed ‘n Feed or moss killer)

*Crop debris like the tops of carrots, parsnips, onion, beet greens, beans and peas, etc. After harvesting, you can put the tops on your planting beds. You can even top dress with weeds you’ve pulled, but make sure there are no seed heads attached!

*Plant peas (shelling, sugar snap or snow peas) or beans. Peas and beans are “nitrogen fixers”—that is, the plants’ roots add nitrogen to the soil.

One student’s food garden consisted of a large container on her deck, filled with store-bought potting dirt. Her small yard and that of her neighbors had no trees or grass, only shrubs and beauty bark. (I’m guessing her HOA didn’t allow compost piles.) As a result, she didn’t have any organic material readily available to add to her soil.

An idea: sow a small crop of peas, which will be ready to harvest in just a couple of months. After harvesting, you can cut up the tops and add to the soil.

*Vitamins from the sea: A newly-retired student moved to an island out in the bay. His property right on the shoreline, so he’s using seaweed to build his soil. You can also buy kelp products.

*Compost: Amend your soil with home-grown compost, or commercial products like “mushroom compost,” which is actually decomposed chicken manure. If you do use store-bought/imported compost, research the product carefully to ensure it doesn’t contain any compounds you don’t want in your garden.

If the compost does contain any manure, which is generally alkaline, keep in mind not all crops thrive with manure-based amendments. One easy rule of thumb: avoid using it for crops like blueberries (which require acidic soil), potatoes (prefer slightly acidic soils) and carrots (which doesn’t grow well in soil amended with manure).

According to “Mini-Farming: Self-Sufficiency on ¼ Acre,” which I featured here last month, if you add compost to your planting beds for 3 years in a row, the soil will develop the minerals and vitamins necessary for food gardening—thus outside inputs won't be necessary.

Also, the author recommended that if your soil is iron-deficient, add nettles to your compost pile as they are high in iron! 

Mulches: one student asked about using straw for weed control on the paths between crop rows. The first few years on our place, I used lots of straw for paths. Then I discovered from the local nursery that straw is not the best option: almost all straw comes from grain crops applied with herbicides.

Also, straw has been dried in a kiln, so it's basically sterile (though some weed seeds do survive—that’s weeds for you!). So as the straw decomposes, it won’t add much organic matter to your soil.

Unless you can source your straw from sustainably grown crops, you might try materials like wood chips (ground-up wood, not beauty bark).

Wood chips in the blueberry patch

Next Week, FAQ’s on Crop Cultivation!