Build Amazing Fertile Garden Soil Using Free and Local Resources in your Mulch or Compost
How to build soil fertility for the perfect garden soil for free! It is fall here in Alberta and that means the summer crops are done and some of the garden beds are done for the year. Just because there is nothing goring in some of these beds does not mean you can’t be getting ready for next season. Today I am going to show you how I continue to build soil fertility over the winter with free and local resources. Mulching garden beds is a great practice to help build your soil fertility. Compost Probably the best thing to mulch with is finished compost. The nutrients are immediately available for the nutrient cycle and it usually comes with a high concentration of beneficial bacteria and organisms like earth worms that will help break down the other mulch materials. Generally I simply lay it on top in a 2-3 cm or 1 inch layer after having pulled back any undecomposed mulch material. I don’t mix it in so that I don’t damage any of the beneficial organisms like fungi in the soil. Autumn Leaves Autumn leaves are a great resource that quite literally falls from the sky. They have a wide variety of trace elements and carbon. In fact of the 15 commonly tested for beneficial and essential elements autumn leaves have 11/15. When broken down they add these nutrients to the nutrient cycle and the carbon material adds humus that retains water and provides habitat for soil born beneficial organisms. I usually add a thick layer to the garden as it will help insulate the soil from the harshest winter temperatures. By spring the volume will have decreased as it decomposes. The one thing autumn leaves don’t have a lot of is Nitrogen for this we will need to turn to some other resources you generate in the kitchen Used Coffee Grounds and Tea Leaves Used coffee grounds and tea leaves are often tossed in the trash but they are a valuable resource to add to the garden. When I analyzed coffee grounds in the testing garden assumptions series videos I found they had a total NPK of 2.05-0.2979-0.7469 with a hand full of trace elements. Used Tea leaves also have an impressive total NPK of 4.15-0.62 -0.4 doubling the nitrogen and phosphorus of used coffee grounds [1] Tea leaves also have 12 of 15 elements making them a valuable addition to the mulch. I usually sprinkle them directly on top of the autumn leaves making sure not to apply more than a cm or ½ inch to any one area. If over applied they can slow the decomposition process. Not only can you take materials that would otherwise become trash but you can literally grow your own fertilizer on site. Comfrey Comfrey is a plant that sends down a deep taproot to and is able to collect nutrients from the mineral layer and bring it to the surface as a part of its leaves. I use the leaves as a part of my mulch layer helping to deposit those nutrients where the garden plants can use them. Comfrey has a total NPK of 3.7-1.2-8.43 and it contains all 15 of the 15 commonly tested for essential and beneficial elements. Eggshells Eggshells are commonly added to my mulch layer as well. They are over 40% calcium that is immediately plant available when released from the shell. Eggshells also have a wide variety of elements including nitrogen. They have 9/15 elements tested for and most importantly have significant quantities of Selenium which is often not in other free and local resources. Eggshells are easy to add to the mulch layer. I usually let them dry out in my shed for a few months. This will help reduce any potential for harmful bacterial to colonize. Once dry and brittle I crush the shells roughly and simply sprinkle on the mulch layer. Hot Compost If you are applying mulch to an area near a live plant make sure not to apply too thick of a layer of these mulch materials. When combine in larger quantities they can and will create a hot compost that can damage root systems. Cover Crops, Wood Ash and Urine When combine and used in a mulch layer or in the creation of compost these free and local resources often have more than enough nutrients allowing you to grow healthy organic vegetables year after year. If combine with other free and local methods such as cover crops, wood ash and human urine I am confident anyone can have a product free garden that produces healthy organic crops. If you would like more information on the materials above make sure to check out the Testing Garden Assumptions Series [2] where I take a look at garden Methods, Practices and Products to see if they are supported by science. The videos that are published the first Friday of the month have taken an in depth look at the materials we used today and they are supported. [1] "The Truth about Garden Remedies" by Jeff Gillman (2008) p. 41 [2] Testing Garden Assumptions Series Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5mfR-r4BXH3UTGH_3UAG6cB8NnlO8M1U
Comments
-
Leaves=rock dust because trees have deep roots
-
I have a concrete container and it has a small hole at the top. Do you think that afterwards I put the leaves and etc inside it will turn to humus although it is separeted from the ground?
-
hi, I'd like to use my neighbor s prunings and leaves, but I saw one of them trowing some fuel from his lawn mower to the floor. Can heavy metals be absorbed by trees? What about leaves from trees in squares?
-
sorry if the answer is obvious, but can I use this to grow fruit (passion fruit to be more specific), I want to learn more about gardening :)
-
Great video!
-
Thank you for the video. Do you have the Latin name for the comfrey with the 15/15 minerals? Also do you have any data on plants that draw pollution as well as nutrients from the soil during growth? Thank you in advance.
-
Not bad at all.But the best fertilizer is Human feces right?So shit in the garden everyday from October until the next spring can be very effective & effortless,and the cucumbers will be greener next year.
-
Great video, how do you feel about using coffee grounds from companies like Starbucks where they may have used GMO coffee beans? Also I was thinking about using grass clippings but our lawn is sprayed during the summer.. not sure if thats safe either.. probably not...
-
Great video filled with valuable info and ideas, thanks for taking the time to share what you've learned, and for choosing a gardening method that achieves symbiosis with the ecology of soil and the surrounding ecosystem. Keep up the great work!
-
love how you tossed in the human urine part right at the end! sneaky devil you!
-
What month do you do all of this to the soil for best results?
-
The coffee shop i was collecting from has changed its policy. Damn!!!!
-
can you use oak leaves
-
I'm not familiar with the plant you mentioned at 3:24 how is it spelled?
-
Great video Stephen! This year I finally got around to mulching with leaves, and have even decided to make a large pile to see if I can get some leaf mold out of it since a nice lady on Facebook gave me nine full bags of leaves for free. I'm excited to see what's left in the spring, and if I get any leaf mold out of the pile (I think I should, it's heating up enough to keep the snow off of itself so something's going on lol).
-
Leaves - The most available yet raked and thrown out resource...adding some red wigglers to the bed too for microorganism colonization as they break down the organic matter
-
I have to crush egg shells to dust or birds and squirrels will steal them.. lol
-
As usual very interesting and informative, here in the UK I have an allotment with abundant comfrey and stables often deposit used horse manure so I am quite lucky although we do tend to use recycling bins for household scraps as the worms really do love them
Finally + rep for your choice of tea its the best -
Great tips ! Keep it coming ;)
-
good info :) thanks again
4m 58sLenght
557Rating