Regenerative gardening - as nature intended
In a nutshell
Fruit and vegetable gardening provides nutritional and other health benefits
Regenerative gardening mimics nature by focusing on the soil microbiome
Our experiment is literally bearing fruit and is tremendously satisfying
Benefits of growing our own fruit and vegetables
Three years ago when we started to create our vegetable garden I was primarily motivated by the knowledge that fruit and vegetables produced by industrial agriculture have, over time, declined in their content of necessary micronutrients. Today, fruit and veg (and meat and dairy) contains about half the amount of important micronutrients that were available to our grandparents.
It is also apparent human gut microbiota have been affected negatively by our modern lifestyle but can be restored to health by contact with our natural environment.
Overall, there are many advantages to growing our own fruit and vegetables:
Highest nutrient density
Soil microbiome transfer from working in the garden
Soil microbiome transfer from garden produce
Supply of local, seasonal produce
No chemical residues
Exposure to full-spectrum natural sunlight
Exposure to the earth’s electrical charge
I will in future write about the human health benefits of full-spectrum natural sunlight, the earth’s electrical charge, and local, seasonal produce
Principles underpinning our approach to gardening
Our approach to producing our own vegetables is not organic, but regenerative. It goes beyond conventional organic crop production which is a niche version of the current flawed industrialised monocropping approach. Organic production still emphasizes crop yield based on a limited number of acceptable fertilisers and pesticides. Unfortunately, by not prioritising the living soil, it damages our environment through soil degradation, loss of insects, and associated reduction in the population of birds and bats. Organic production is also part of the problem of reduced micronutrients in our food.
Our approach to vegetable gardening is focused primarily on creating a healthy living soil. It is based on the sorts of regenerative practices promoted by Allan Savory [1]. He summarises industrial agriculture well when he writes:
“With the rise of industrial agriculture…we have tended to treat our soils merely as a medium in which to hold crops upright while we pour chemicals over them. In reality, soil is alive and respiring, as most living organisms do, and it has to be nurtured.”
He continues:
“A truly regenerative agriculture more closely mimics nature; it enhances rather than diminishes, water and mineral cycles, energy flow, and community dynamics.”
Nature's circular economy
This general theme is fleshed out as a circular economy between above ground plants and the diverse soil community, including micro- and macro-biota [2]:
“Weirdly, we’ve all been schooled in the notion that plants are takers, removing nutrients from the soil and leaving it poorer. But when plants are allowed to work with their partners in the soil, they’re givers. They feed carbon exudates to the community of bacteria and fungi to keep them thrumming with life and pulling mineral nutrients from the bedrock as well as from particles of sand, silt, and clay because…they will profit from the gift. When the predator soil organisms eat the bacteria and fungi, all those nutrients are released near the plant. There’s always enough, unless humans or some other force messes up the system.”
Several good books describe the interaction of plants and living soil, especially microbiota [2–5].
Specific to vegetable gardening, we follow the principles described in those books and the practices described by Charles Dowding [6].
Growing fruit and vegetables by mimicking nature
Soil is a living system that needs to be fed and cared for. We inherited a garden that was stressed and we had to create a healthy soil by inoculating the ground with a mixture of healthy microbiota. The second stage is the ongoing care of the soil to maintain its health.
Inoculation and ongoing management may run in parallel for some time as I’ll describe below.
Microbiota inoculation
The general idea is to innoculate the soil with sources of soil microbiota. We have used a variety of organic mulches to create the greatest diversity of soil microbiota. Those mulches have included:
Composted plant kitchen waste, including coffee grounds
Composted garden weeds, prunings and chipped branches
Subtidal seaweed
Mushroom soil
We have spread those over the surface of our garden in the autumn and allowed the natural processes of decomposition and burial over the winter to incorporate them into the living soil. By the time of spring planting, there are very few signs left of the surface dressing.
We are aiming for a mixed soil microbiota containing rich, diverse populations of bacteria and fungi. Research has shown that a 1:1 ratio of bacteria:fungi produces optimal soil for fruit and vegetables [7, 8] which, compared to less regenerative practices, can produce increases in [9]:
Crop yields
Soil carbon
Soil water retention
Availability of macro- (N,P,K) and micro-nutrients (e.g., Mn)
We’ll probably do an element of this annually because we want to increase our soil volume and can achieve this in part with live mulching.
Ongoing soil care
Once established, it is important to keep in mind that soil is a living system. It needs to be handled without damage, it needs to be fed, and its microbiota diversity needs to be maintained.
We are minimizing damage to the soil by not disturbing it and allowing the vast interconnected population of soil fungi to remain intact.. This is the basis of the “No Dig” practice advocated by Charles Dowding [6].
We are feeding our soil in two ways. Mulches add organic material and complex microbial metabolites from the composting process. The second, and likely more important, source of soil food is from the plants growing above the soil. In the circular economy described above, plants constantly feeds sugars (derived from atmospheric carbon dioxide) to the fungi and bacteria in the soil and receive in return a broad range of nutritients. This means that living roots must be kept in soil all year. Our approach will include a mixture of seasonal vegetables and cover crops during the winter.
We will build diverse soil microbiota by growing a diverse range of vegetables and with annual mulching. Diversity is an important property of a resilient, natural environment. It maximises the chance of maintaining good health in the face of unpredictable stressors and reduces the chances of harmful microbial infections.
With the important principles explained, how did we proceed with our project, and why has it taken us three years to barely get started?
Creating a fruit and vegetable garden from scratch
When, in 2022, we moved into our new house, we realized that we had inherited a space with great potential but the area we identified as suitable for growing fruit and vegetables was mostly covered by paving, landscaper’s fabric, and grass dominated by moss. The soil likely suffered from low microbial biomass and diversity because it hadn’t been fed by sunlight for years. Our first two years involved removing the source of soil damage and creating the base conditions for the reset.
I’ll highlight, by year, the activities undertaken, what we’ve learned and any progress so far. I’ve provided a photographic timeline from one section of the garden to give a view of what we did. The same timeline applies to other sections not in the photo record.
2022
Activities undertaken
In year one, we identified the areas that would become the vegetable garden, removed harmful soil covers, and dug in the beneficial organics that would provide the initial soil inoculation. Specific activities included:
Removing old landscape fabric
Removing paving that had previously supported a greenhouse
Removing old broken-down child’s playhouse shading the soil
Digging in a large pile of clay
Digging in the organics that had accumulated on top of the impervious soil cover
Digging in composted horse manure
Covering old lawn grass with biodegradable cardboard
Sowing winter cover crop to start feeding the live soil
Spreading surface mulch that included:
Chipped and shredded material from wider garden pruning and weeding
Contents of large, ancient garden compost pile
Seaweed collected from the beach
Mushroom soil
2022-September: Landscape fabric and concrete paving have been removed. Chipped and shredded organics pruned from the garden are spread as a mulch. Bagged horse manure will be spread over the surface. The 400 year-old garden walls need to be re-pointed for protection and to restore their aesthetic beauty
Lessons learned
Intertidal seaweed is the easiest to collect from the beach but it does not readily break down as mulch. In 2024, we still have pieces on the surface of the garden, two years after application…!
Much of this stage involves hard physical labour and the garden resembled a building site.
2022-October More of the same chipping, shredding, and mulching on the right-hand bed. Our first winter cover crop has emerged on the left-hand bed and is creating and trading carbohydrate food with microbes in the soil
Signs of progress
We established our first winter cover crop on an early cleared space.
2022-October A wider-angle view of year one progress and the toll it has taken on a poor garden rake…life can be rough
2023
Activities undertaken
In the second year the area still largely resembled a building site. We continued to establish the basics of the growing environment by amending and feeding the soil and constructing a greenhouse. We also planted fruit trees and vegetables in the beds and greenhouse.
Everything was planted later in the season than optimal and this may have influenced some of the results. Specific activities included:
Fruit trees
Planted fig and quince and espaliered apple and pear
Transplanted old apple tree and red currant bush
Pruned old plum trees badly infected with fungi
Surface fed everything with mushroom soil
Greenhouse
Constructed over old lawn area
Grew from seed – lettuce, radish, beetroot, basil – all harvested
Grew from small plants – tomatoes, sweet peppers – all harvested
Planted nasturtium as companion and salad fruit crop - harvested
Mulched beds in autumn with garden compost
Outside vegetable beds
Planted from seeds
Turnips - harvested
Lettuce - harvested
Planted from small plants
Brussel sprouts – harvested throughout winter
Broccoli – harvested
Courgette – early fruit didn’t develop, later fruit harvested
Cabbage – decimated by pigeons, caterpillars and slugs
Cauliflower – didn’t develop harvestable heads
Winter squash – didn’t fruit
Mulched all beds with composted kitchen and garden material, subtidal seaweed and mushroom soil
2023-January A light dusting of snow on the cover crop and piles of legacy garden compost covering the mulch on the right-hand bed. Efforts to re-point the stone wall are ongoing as can be seen from the sections of cleared old mortar
2023-April The left-hand bed now contains small brassica plants hidden by the paving. Bare root fig and pear trees and a transplanted apple tree have been dug into the right-hand bed with the benefit of a dusting of mycorrhizal fungi from the bag near the center of the picture. The walls have been repointed and, as always, beloved Charley was keeping us safe
Lesson learned
Judging by poor development of sweet peppers and basel in the greenhouse and most things outside in the garden our soil was still probably quite sick.
We also realized that the garden was full of slugs after years of neglect and they feasted on things like the brassicas and turnips.
2023-April A section of lawn is excavated, foundations laid and a greenhouse constructed in front of the vegetable beds. Bare root apple trees in the foreground await planting
2023-May Brassicas under covers held down crudely with stones. Fruit trees flowering. Overall, the place is taking shape but still resembles a building site
Signs of progress
The greenhouse was in place and functional. We were able to use it to get harvestable vegetables and overcome the fact that we delayed planting everything.
The garden, whilst still resembling a building site and probably still consisting of poor quality soil, was supporting growth.
2023-October Signs of early progress in the right-hand bed with harvestable crops of winter squash, turnips, lettuce, and apples. Pak Choi, unfortunately went immediately to seed. A pile of subtidal seaweed newly collected from the beach awaits spreading on the soil surface as a mulch to feed the living soil
2023-November Both beds showing progress with cabbage, cauliflower, brussel sprouts and broccoli plants in the left-side bed and mostly turnips and lettuce in the right-side. The soil in both is darkened by a good mulch of subtidal seaweed, kitchen/garden compost and mushroom soil
2024
2024-February Emerging from the winter, not many crops left and most of the large pieces of mulch have been broken down and incorporated into the soil
2024-February Work starts on bringing proper definition to the beds. This is the last time the soil will suffer from major structural disruption. Once those beds are properly defined, the microbes in the soil will not be damaged by digging
Activities undertaken
Now into our third year, we started to take greater advantage of the greenhouse to grow most things from seed. In retrospect we were still late in starting. We also bought small grafted tomato plants to compare with seed-grown.
We also started to provide more structure to the delineated beds and to experiment with vertical growing to save surface space. Specific activities included:
Fruit trees – continued to espalier and all currently fruiting
• Greenhouse
Large-scale propagation of most plants irrespective of destination
In ground from seed – salad greens (lettuce, mizuna, rocket, mache), basil, sweet peppers, melon, cucumber, tomatoes, nasturtium
In ground from small grafted plants – tomatoes
Outside vegetable beds
Salad greens – harvesting ongoing
Summer squash of various cultivars (trombone, soleil, Romanesco) - harvesting ongoing
Radishes - harvesting and succession sowing ongoing
Turnips - harvesting and succession sowing ongoing
Nasturtiums - harvesting ongoing
Various herbs (parsley, chives, oregano, cilantro, tarragon, rosemary, sage, borage) - harvesting ongoing
Carrots - harvesting ongoing
Beets - harvesting ongoing
Garlic - harvesting ongoing
Beans – beginning to fruit
Peas - flowering
Cabbages
Celeriac
Pak choi
Winter squash (butternut, spaghetti)
2024-April Large-scale seed propagation is underway for the first time
2024-April More bed structuring and creation of a climbing surface for things like beans and squashes
Lesson learned
We need to germinate certain plants inside as early as January-February next year. This applies to tomatoes and peppers if we want to grow from seed.
The subtidal seaweed (not intertidal) when mulched composts down completely by the spring planting season.
The two major pests are slugs and pigeons at the time of writing. We used beer traps to good effect in the greenhouse (slugs probably transplanted with garden compost) but not outside. The pigeons have been less of a nuisance since the breeding season. We’ll probably try physical screening next year.
2024-April Vertical posts adorned with decorative tops and support netting for more climbers like beans and peas. Woolen packing materials (draping blue buckets) are used in the garden and green house as mulch to suppress weeds and retain surface moisture
2024-July Real signs of life abound in the garden that now also provides aesthetic value
Signs of progress
The greenhouse was put to good use to produce a greater diversity of plants from seeds for the garden. It is also being used more this year to on-grow plants that need higher temperatures, such as tomatoes, sweet peppers, basel, melons, and cucumbers.
The summer squash have fruited from the first flowers and we put this down to better live soil making things like calcium more bioavailable than last year. We are picking them when thumb-sized for a continuous harvest.
Early harvest of things like courgettes, radishes, and turnips provides sweeter, more complex tasting produce than harvesting later.
Despite the ongoing challenge, there are fewer signs of slug damage and we put this down to a cleaner general environment and maybe slightly healthier plants more able to defend themselves.
2024-July The birds are now framed properly
2024-July From left, clockwise - melons, various early salad greens, tomatoes, and cucumber. Nasturtiums deter aphids and are used in salads
Summary
We are three years into a regenerative gardening project to grow our own fruit and vegetables. Early signs are that the soil is healing and beginning to support a healthy ecosystem above ground too. We are getting good early crops, and we are increasing the volume and diversity. The big question is “Are the nutrient levels tastier than anything we can buy”? Not sure yet. I can tell you that things like salad greens, turnips, and tomatoes are tastier than anything we can buy. Perhaps that is a surrogate for nutrition.
We are in the garden most days, in the sunlight, often barefoot working and harvesting and it feels really good…!
2024-July From left, clockwise - Tomatoes, basil, sweet peppers, and melons
2024-July Side bed not previously shown contains from foreground out - celeriac, dill, cabbage, lettuce
2024-July Same bed viewed from the side
References
Savory, A. & Butterfield, J. (2016) Holistic Management: A common sense revolution to restore our environment. Washington, DC: Island Press
Ohlson, K. (2014) The Soil Will Save Us: How scientists, farmers, and foodies are healing the soil to save the planet. NY: Rodale
Lowenfels, J. & Lewis, W. (2010) Teaming with Microbes: The organic gardener’s guide to the soil food web. Portland, OR: Timber Press
Montgomery, D. & Bikle, A. (2016) The Hidden Half of Nature: The microbial roots of life and health. New York: W.W. Norton and Co.
Phillips, M. (2017) Mycorrhizal Planet: Regenerative practices for the farm, garden, orchard, forest, and landscape. White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green Publishing
Dowding, C. (2022) No Dig: Nurture your soil to grow better veg with less effort. London: Dorling Kindersley
Johnson D, Ellington J, Eaton W. Development of soil microbial communities for promoting sustainability in agriculture and a global carbon fix. PeerJ Preprints; 2015. DOI: 10.7287/peerj.preprints.789v1.
https://regenerativeagriculturepodcast.com/episodes/microbial-communities-for-carbon-sequestration-with-david-johnson-2/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neIIPRRnXQQ