6 ways to save money, heal the land, and grow more nutritious food

Turn waste into treasure—with compost and without—to maximize space and nutrition.

Although not included in my list of composting methods, aged chicken bedding creates nitrogen-heavy humus.

Over the past few months I’ve shared several posts about saving money. I shared how I cut annual expenses on the homestead, creative ways to save, how to make your own cooking extracts, DIY cleaning supplies, homemade dog treats, sourcing plants on a budget, and today I’m sharing wallet-friendly ways specific to nourishing the garden.

1. Japanese tomato cages. I learned about this composting and growing technique in Craig Lehoullier’s book EPIC TOMATOES. I’ve employed a Japanese tomato cage in my garden ever since. I repurposed a wire fencing tree cage for mine. The concept leans on maximizing utilization of the compost’s nutrition as soon as possible, and also maximizing space. The cage serves as a composting area and trellis. You plant tomatoes along the cage perimeter. The roots benefits from the nutrients breaking down into the soil beneath the cage, and the aerial parts can vine and be secured through the cage. I also grow snap peas, beans, and cowpeas on the cages depending on the season. I routinely add food scraps, leaves, and random weeds that I don’t intend to chop-and-drop (usually if they have seed heads). This method of composting saves energy since you don’t need to haul compost from a separate area into your garden. It’s already there. I also opt to move my cage each year, which allows targeted soil health improvements throughout the garden.

2. Worm bins and in-ground buckets. Worm bins are relatively affordable to set up and require very minimal maintenance. A hydrated coco coir brick, a bag of red wiggler worms, and a storage tote are all that’s needed to get started. Worm compost is known in the garden community as “black gold.” It creates highly bioavailable nutrients, doesn’t burn roots, and helps improve soil hydrology. For folks who don’t want to manage a bin separate from their garden, there’s also an option to drill some holes in a bucket and bury it within your garden with the lid just above the soil surface. The buckets serve as the composting space, then nutrients can leach directly from the bucket into the garden soil. You can also harvest worm compost from the bucket just as you would a bin.

3. Weeds. There’s a saying that defines weeds as plants that grow in an area where you don’t want them to grow. I’ve noticed chickweed, white clover, cleavers, dandelions, and violets pop up in my garden and I choose to leave (most of) them. Yes, I didn’t intend for them to be there, but they’re useful to wildlife and to me. Instead of looking at every plant that you didn’t add as an invader, turn their presence into a benefit. For the “weeds” that just can’t stay where they’ve shown up, pull them out and let them decompose on the soil surface. If you’re concerned about seed heads spreading that way, add them to walkways so that foot traffic will suppress them, or mix them into the Japanese tomato cage.

   

   Radishes can be left in place to serve as a green mulch, soil aerator, and soil builder.

4. Green mulch. When we think of waste, we might reflexively think of food waste, garden waste, or weed waste. We also have space waste. Maximize every part of the garden so that all areas have an opportunity to serve as a growing site. Cover crops and green mulch build soil health and attract life. For example, buckwheat produces flowers in about 40 days, from seed to bloom. Interplanting buckwheat in unused garden spaces attracts pollinators above the soil, life below the soil, helps to pull nutrients up for surrounding plants, and then the buckwheat can be chopped-and-dropped to breakdown and build soil in place. Another seasonal example I like to use includes radishes. Radishes are quick to mature like buckwheat—ranging from 20-to-50 days—and their leaves can help protect the soil from excessive sun exposure, which helps retain moisture. You can also leave the radishes in place to flower and attract pollinators, and later to decompose in place. The radish tap root helps break up and aerate the soil, and as it decomposes it helps build soil. Turnips offer similar opportunity and benefits.

   Pound for pound, leaves can do more to improve your garden than any lawn or garden product available. And they are free…” --NC Cooperative Extension

5. Leaves. If your growing space doesn’t have access to leaves, consider collecting them from someone you know or connecting with a community leaf pick-up service. Part of a permaculture mindset is mimicking nature. In a woodland setting, leaves fall and protect the soil surface, then decay and return to the soil. Permaculturist Andrew Millison stresses that we can control succession. We can speed up processes with proper management. Acquiring leaves and allowing them to compost creates what’s called leaf mold or leaf mulch. This can be applied to the soil surface, worked into the soil, or used in compost teas. According to the NC Cooperative Extension, “leaf mulch is rich in calcium, potassium, and magnesium essential for vegetables and other plants. As leaves decompose, they slowly release nutrients and micronutrients into the soil that are not normally found in commercial fertilizers.”

   

   Let’s not underestimate how nature mulches: leaves!

6. Compost teas. Whether brewed from a general compost bin or a worm compost bin, compost teas stretch the potential application areas enormously. The amount of compost needed to mulch a single plant can support creating several gallons of compost tea, which can then fertilize a large garden area, and further fertilize an even larger growing space when applied as a foliar spray. According to THE PLANT PATHOLOGY JOURNAL, aerated compost teas have a positive impact on foliage and root growth, depending on the plant and the materials brewed. Aerated compost teas help reduce water table pollution while improving soil porosity.

All of these efforts help put materials to work that would otherwise get wasted. A metaphor that I like to use is that I feel like I’m in the kitchen looking at all of the ingredients for baking a cake laid out on the counter. Why not use them?