Most of us here compost, but there is also a way to work with soil by a sort of sheet composting over time. By this I mean adding materials as your have them.
For example, eggshells are saved, and when I have a cookie sheet worth, they go into the oven after something else is done and are dried in the leftover heat. The shells are then crushed fine by rolling a jar or rolling pin over them, then taken outside to spread. Today I sprinkled egshell bits over all the beds and containers on this side of the house.
Friends who were moving gave me old spices and herbs they were going to toss. I mixed them in a bucket and powdered my beds and pots. Smelled a bit funny out there until it rained! I was careful not to use anything with salt or chemicals like msg in them,, too.
The paprika and dried peppers kind of things were saved for pest control.
I wanted to add peatmoss to some beds I was renovating last year, so I just spread it on top in the winter. The peat was moistened by the snow and rain, and the bulbs and perennials came up right through the peat so everything looked tidy.
Coffee grounds are a good use of this technique; coffee plants take a lot of nutrients out of the soil they are grown in, and are a rich source of nutrients and humus for your garden and containers, withno weeds, either. Just pouring your diluted old coffee
Bit by bit, a lot can be done.
For example, eggshells are saved, and when I have a cookie sheet worth, they go into the oven after something else is done and are dried in the leftover heat. The shells are then crushed fine by rolling a jar or rolling pin over them, then taken outside to spread. Today I sprinkled egshell bits over all the beds and containers on this side of the house.
Friends who were moving gave me old spices and herbs they were going to toss. I mixed them in a bucket and powdered my beds and pots. Smelled a bit funny out there until it rained! I was careful not to use anything with salt or chemicals like msg in them,, too.
The paprika and dried peppers kind of things were saved for pest control.
I wanted to add peatmoss to some beds I was renovating last year, so I just spread it on top in the winter. The peat was moistened by the snow and rain, and the bulbs and perennials came up right through the peat so everything looked tidy.
Coffee grounds are a good use of this technique; coffee plants take a lot of nutrients out of the soil they are grown in, and are a rich source of nutrients and humus for your garden and containers, withno weeds, either. Just pouring your diluted old coffee
Bit by bit, a lot can be done.