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Like anything, soil is expensive because people are willing to buy it. If nobody bought soil, its price would drop to zero. That's economics, baby!
The truth is, the best quality soil can't be found in a bag at a store. It's only grown at home (or in a forest). We're going to discuss why building your own soil is not only cheaper - but also healthier for your plants and the planet!
Global Soil Supply Logistics
If you buy your garden soil at the local big box store, you might be surprised at what went into getting to to you.
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Global supply chains may source peat moss from Canada, forest topsoil from Oregon, langbeinite mined in New Mexico, seabird guano from Peru, kelp meal harvested in California, AZOMITE from Utah, etc.
One bag of dirt may have travelled many thousands of miles cumulatively to reach your garden. Ecosystems were disturbed and fossil fuels were burned to make it happen.
If you purchase soil, you're spending hard-earned money on something that you can build yourself at home for free. If that soil isn't produced locally, you're also sending money out of the local economy while increasing the distance that dirt has to travel to get to you.
You Can Make Soil for Free
The alternative to paying hard-earned money for environmentally-unfriendly bags of dirt is, of course, to simply make it yourself!
It's so obvious it's often overlooked, but making soil is possible, rewarding, exciting, and so foundational on your journey as a regenerative gardener.
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Just like growing your own veggies is the way to get the highest quality produce possible, building your own soil is the way to get the highest quality soil possible.
you can absolutely make your own soil at home for free, and never spend another penny on bags of dirt. It's true! This is the fine alchemy of soil-building.
Compost like this can be a primary constituent of your soil if you garden at a small scale. This provides the full spectrum of organic matter, macro-and-micro-nutrients, trace minerals, beneficial bacteria, mycorrhizal fungi, and various other decomposers.
If you garden at a larger scale and cannot provide enough compost to make a dent in powering your fields or rows no matter how hard you try, we'll cover soil-building next, which is the scalable solution.
Why Make Your Own Soil?
Building your own soil is not only far less expensive than purchasing it, it's also more sustainable and the quality is infinitely higher!
As mentioned above, building your own soil cuts your supply chain miles from thousands down to zero. It cuts your soil price down to almost zero. It helps repair your ecosystem, rather than tearing some up to get peat or topsoil.
Most importantly, you can create soil of an unparalleled caliber, and you can do it at any scale!
How to Build Your Own Soil
An understanding of soil-building relies on knowing what soil is and where it comes from in nature.
Soil is comprised mainly of the following components in order of amount (highest to lowest):
- Water
- Carbon
- Nitrogen
- Phosphorus
- Potassium
- Calcium
- Magnesium
- Sulfur
- Other Trace Minerals (Cl, Cu, Fe, B, Mn, Mo, Ni, Zn)
- Organic Compounds
Water has primacy, and you'll have to take care of that one before growing a garden. If you're in an arid environment I highly recommend setting up an irrigation system at the start of any new gardening venture.
Once you have water handled, we can move on...
One major realization you'll have in studying soil-building is that the majority of these macronutrients and trace minerals are naturally present in most native geology (sand, silt, rocks).
Further, that a thriving soil microbiome can readily extract these elements, via creation of carbonic and acetic acids and microbial weathering - making them bioavailable to plants.
In fact, carbon and nitrogen are really the only two soil components which you'll have to introduce in sizable quantities if you've got poor or degraded native soil.
Serendipitously, both carbon and nitrogen are availably in the air. How convenient!
Nitrogen comprises around 78% of Earth's atmosphere, while Carbon (as CO₂) comprises around 0.04% of the atmospehere.
Almost all plants can extract the carbon from the air, while specialized "nitrogen-fixing" bacteria can extract the nitrogen.
If you team up with the right species to extract these two critical components for your soil, and you do it in large enough volume, you'll be able to build just about as much soil as you could ever need.
More Resources
To learn all about soil-building, check out our guide on How to Build Great Soil.
If you're looking for specific soil mix recipes, rather than soil-building as a general garden practice, check out our guide to Making Your Own Soil Mixes.
That's all for now, good luck in your soil-building journey! Don't forget to check out the rest of this site, which is a wealth of information on soil-building and growing regeneratively.
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![Black Dirt Live Again [Green]](/media/product_images/black-dirt-live-again-[green]_sticker_260x260.png)
That's all for now, thanks for reading!
If you have any questions, comments, or would like to connect with fellow gardeners, head on over to the forum and post there.
