We have been systematically feeding blocks of our soil for years, beginning many years ago with composted orange tree material, mulch, several layers of home brew compost from grass clippings and leaves/branches, chicken manure, and several truckloads worth of wood chips to help provide additional composting material. Over several years of these activities our soil has gone from a flat layer of nutrient deficient sand, to a soil thriving with worms and nutrients that helps any crop we sew get a great start.

One of the best methods and most used methods we use is by means of cover crops. Sorghum-Sudangrass and Sunn Hemp are two varieties of cover crop we use the most of to create a thick layer of “green compost”. We allow these two varieties to grow abundantly and tall, creating an area of thick grassy material that can then be mowed down and mixed into the soil to compost itself and break down into nutrients that actually help regenerate the soil. These areas also deter weed growth by competing under the soil for nutrients and water, essentially starving out unwanted vegetation. As you can see from the pictures, our soil is dark, fluffy, and rich with all of the compounds required by vegetation for strong growth and happy roots. To see earth worms in our soil cleaning and recycling organic matter is truly a treat considering our land was simply an empty grass field over a decade ago. Good things take time and feeding our soil properly has been a task we’ve taken seriously.