What’s Your Secret Recipe for Healthy Soil?

[TEG Project Manager]

Every great garden starts from the ground up—literally! Healthy, nutrient-rich soil is like a buffet for your plants, and composting is one of the most rewarding (and thrifty) ways to keep that buffet well-stocked. Whether you’re tossing kitchen scraps into a bin, layering leaves and grass in a pile, or experimenting with worm bins, there are so many creative ways to turn “waste” into garden gold.

Some gardeners swear by the classic mix of greens and browns. Others sneak in coffee grounds, eggshells, or even seaweed. And then there are the bold souls who let their chickens or goats pitch in with manure magic.

So, let’s talk dirt!
What’s your favorite way to compost?
Do you have a tried-and-true “ingredient” that works wonders in your soil?
Or maybe you’ve had a composting flop you can laugh about now?

Share your methods, your wins, and your soil-building secrets. Who knows—you might inspire someone to start their first compost pile today!

 

[flowerbug]

return as much as you can to the gardens where grown.

worm composting, in place composting, other composting and amending where needed.

crop rotations, cover crops and fallowing.

i consider my biggest failures to be when i can't get a garden weeded early enough that the majority of the weeds can't be composted in that garden. too many seed heads mean that the weeds have to go to the weed pile and that means i'm moving some garden soil there and all those nutrients and biomass to a place where it won't be reused by me directly. it may come back later via bird poo but that's a whole different kind of story.

as a general composting pile the weed pile also ends up feeding some other animals too - like i had put some old squash seeds out there last week and the chipmunks have been moving them around.