Clover sown over a bare plot, a bucket of nettles bubbling in rainwater, a handful of wood ash scattered round the seedlings: feeding the soil rather than the plants costs almost nothing, since most of these amendments come free from the kitchen and the garden. Keep the ground covered and fed, and it stays rich and alive.
As time passes, chemicals alter microbial life and renders soil barren and sterile. It’s best to avoid these environment-killing products and feed your beloved growing soil with natural amendments instead!
It’s a doubly wise move since, more often than not, they’re free!
Scorpionweed, clover, mustard… Green manure groups all plants that excel at restoring soil nutrients instead of depleting them.
Usually, they’re planted in the vegetable patch at the very beginning of Spring, at the end of the Summer or in Fall as soon as a plot has been harvested.
Some vegetables such as tomato tend to pump huge amounts of nutrients out of the soil. It’s important to replenish these before planting anything else. Green manure also helps contain erosion and landslides, limits weed growth, and prevents rain from washing nutrients away.
Each of the amendments described below feeds the soil rather than the crop, and most of them cost nothing at all. Use this table to pick the one that suits the waste you already have to hand.
| Amendment | What it supplies | How and when to use it | Extra benefit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Green manure (scorpionweed, clover, mustard) | Restores nutrients instead of depleting them | Sown in the vegetable patch in early spring, in late summer or in autumn as soon as a plot is cleared | Contains erosion, limits weeds, stops rain washing nutrients away |
| Compost | Organic matter, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and most trace elements | Spread on the plot; made from kitchen scraps plus garden and workshop waste | Free, and makes good use of your waste |
| Manure | High levels of nitrogen and carbon, depending on the straw mixed in | Spread directly on the plot, or add it to the compost heap | Loosens the soil so water and air circulate and it is easier to till |
| Weedy tea (nettle, tansy, comfrey, horsetail) | Plant nutrients from fermented fresh material | 1 kg of plant material in 10 litres of rainwater, left to bubble a couple of weeks, filtered, then diluted into watering water | Doubles as an excellent pest control agent |
| Mulch | Nitrogen from green waste, carbon from dead leaves, wood chips and straw | Keep the ground covered at all times, renewing with a different mulch from the previous layer | Preserves moisture, insulates from cold and keeps weeds down |
| Wood ashes | Minerals, from clean untreated wood only | Sprinkled around veggies, seedlings and flowers, or dissolved in rainwater and diluted 1:10 indoors | Puts a waste product that is a hassle to dispose of to good use |
The sections that follow take each of these in turn, with the detail you need to put it to work.
Compost is a fabulous way to add organic matter! On the one hand, it is incredibly rich thanks to the variety of compounds it contains. On the other hand, it’s free and makes good use of your waste. A compost combines kitchen scraps such as peels, water used to boil vegetables, radish and carrot leaves, eggshells, coffee grounds, meat scraps… together with garden and workshop waste such as lawn clippings, sawdust, twigs, weedy teas, ashes and dead leaves.
This nutrient bomb provides much more than the basic nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium mix! Most trace elements necessary to proper plant growth are included, too.
With high levels of nitrogen and carbon (depending on how much straw is mixed in), manure is an excellent choice to enhance your soil. The advantage is that it’s often very easy to procure. All you need to do is to ask you local animal farms for some they’ll give it to you by the truck-full! On top of providing nutrients, manure contributes to soil structure: it loosens it up, lets water and air circulate, and makes it easier to till and work with. You can spread it directly on the plot, or add it to your compost.
Now we’re getting down to business: weedy tea! They enrich the soil and double as excellent pest control agents. It’s a foregone conclusion that every organic gardener will want to avail of fermented tea’s stacked benefits.
Whether we’re talking nettle, tansy, comfrey or horsetail, the mechanics are similar:
Remember that animal fertilizer such as crushed horns, dried blood and guano are also extremely relevant! These tend to have lots of minerals, they boost growth together with blooming and fruit formation.
In all things nature, the ground is never bare. This simple observation explains why permaculture uses mulch to cover the ground and enrich it.
It also helps preserve soil moisture, insulates from the cold, and even keeps weeds from growing. It breaks down and enriches the soil as it does so.
Mulch must be renewed from time to time, preferably with a new, different mulch than the previous layers:
Remember to always cover your vegetable patch and growing beds with mulch to keep the soil rich and alive.
Among the easiest options is to make use of something that’s always a hassle to dispose of: ashes! When they come from clean, untreated wood, ashes are excellent for garden use.
Sprinkle them around veggies, seedlings and flowers, or topdress your lawn with a thin layer.
Another option is to dissolve the ashes in rainwater, and use that for watering. Excellent for houseplants! Dilute 1:10 before watering for indoor or covered use.
