07/30/2026
š± Building better soil through regenerative farming!
Here in Bridgewater, NJ, we have a loamy clay soil, which can be extremely firm and challenging to work with. It also doesnāt naturally have the rich organic matter that many crops thrive in, especially crops like garlic, potatoes, onions, and other root vegetables.
As a regenerative farm, our goal is to give back to the earth rather than constantly take from it. We do this in a number of ways: using wood chips as mulch, making our own compost, collecting rainwater for irrigation, and finding ways to build our soil naturally.
This video is a great example of how weāre rebuilding our soil and creating the ideal growing environment for the crops we grow!
šæ One of our favorite plants for doing this is comfrey.
We grow comfrey throughout our garden for a few different reasons. First, itās known as a nutrient accumulator, with deep roots that can access nutrients from deeper layers of the soil that many of our crops canāt reach.
We can then use the plantās biomass, the leaves and stems, to make our own liquid fertilizer, which weāll show you how to make in another video!
The second reason we love comfrey is because it makes an incredible living mulch and source of organic matter. It dies back in the winter and returns in the spring. As that plant material breaks down, it returns nutrients and organic matter to the soil.
Over time, this helps us build a rich, healthy layer of topsoil above our naturally heavy clay, creating a much better environment for our crops to grow in.
The result? We can build roughly a foot of rich, organic soil for our crops to grow in, while the clay underneath acts like a natural sponge, holding onto water.
Weāre able to create our own fertilizer, build healthier soil, increase organic matter, and reduce how much we need to irrigate, all from incorporating one plant into our growing system.
This is what regenerative farming is all about: working with nature instead of constantly working against it.
And the best part? Many of these practices are rooted in agricultural and permaculture principles that have been used for thousands of years.
