Feeding soil: replenishing nutrients for healthy garden soil without fertilizer

There's abundant life all around us, we just have to go find it. This video shows how we make use of locally available, free organic material to feed and rejuvenate our soil, replenishing nutrients with coffee grounds, brown leaves and compost. The coffee grounds we get for free at local shops who give them away and the leaves we get from our neighbors. The leaves we then mulch with a battery powered mulching lawn mower.
This is also our process for getting our vegetable beds put to bed and ready for winter.
Foodscaping Utah is a nonprofit that helps people get started growing food.
foodscapingutah.org

[@TheLancashireSuiteTea]

Awesome!

[@charlesbale8376]

Great info, thank you.

[@foodscapingutah5239]

Thank you!

[@junninterim2424]

Please keep educating us. Greetings from the Philippines!

[@foodscapingutah5239]

Thank you! 👍

[@maragrace820]

Exactly what I do .... i don’t get waste from the county because I don’t trust it. I make my own.

[@foodscapingutah5239]

Great! We make our own compost too and are planing ways to grow more cover crops to increase the self sufficiency of our ecosystem. That said, the compost from our local city green waste is fantastic. I totally understand not trusting them all though. I'm not as big of a fan of our county's compost and I would be hesitant to use a compost derived from green waste materials from commercial dumpers, because there are some persistent herbicides that can persist for years.

[@reapergrim76]

First! This is awesome! 👍

[@foodscapingutah5239]

Thank you!

[@larryandsharonwoodle2038]

Larry Woodle Thanks for the information, great video.

[@foodscapingutah5239]

Thanks!

[@zacharysimon2952]

Great video, thanks! My city also creates green waste that they sell back as compost. I'm a little wary of using it, though. Would you think there is any risk of introducing pesticides or undesirable foreign material from that source?

[@foodscapingutah5239]

That is an excellent question! An important one. The short answer is that I think it is unlikely to be an issue in city green waste compost. Here comes the long answer: We haven't had any trouble at all with our city green waste compost (Ogden City Green Waste Facility, UT), but there is a definite chance that even fully composted materials can contain persistent herbicides. The chance is greater if the compost is derived from horse manure or from pasture hay/grasses, because in the United States (and some other countries) there are some persistent herbicides that are approved for commercial use, some examples are picloram, clopyralid, and aminopyralid which are packaged under a vast range of trade names. These broad leaf herbicides can persist for years. It is less likely to be a problem in a city green waste compost, assuming the city allows only green material from homeowners. If you are worried about your particular green waste compost, you could reach out to a local university state extension agent to ask what they know. You could also test some out by growing a bioassay test where you grow out two or four tomato seedlings using a 50/50 mix of green waste compost and potting soil side-by-side versus a 50/50 mix of trusted compost and potting soil. I'll post some links for more info.

[@foodscapingutah5239]

lee.ces.ncsu.edu/2016/03/herbicide-carryover-in-hay-manure-compost-and-grass-clippings/

[@foodscapingutah5239]

www.growingagreenerworld.com/killer-compost-it-happened-to-us/

[@foodscapingutah5239]

joegardener.com/how-to-conduct-bioassay-test/