Regenerative Food Growing: A Simple Starter Guide

GOAL:

Grow food that nourishes you and heals the soil, even on a small scale.

What to Do:

• Compost your kitchen scraps (veggies, fruit peels, eggshells) to create living soil
• Add leaf litter, grass clippings, coffee grounds, and manure (from trusted sources)
• Use raised beds or fabric grown bags if your ground soil is poor

Why:

Healthy, living soil is full of microbes, fungi, and minerals that feed your plants—and you.

Ideal Starter Crops (for most regions):

• Leafy greens: Spinach, kale, arugula
• Roots: Radish, carrots, beets
• Herbs: Basil, cilantro, thyme, mint
• Fruit (in pots): Tomatoes, strawberries, peppers

Use:

• Heirloom or open-pollinated seeds
• Avoid hybrid seeds that don’t regenerate well

• Rotate crops each season (don’t plant tomatoes in the same spot each year)
• Plant in layers: tall (sunflowers), medium (tomatoes), low (basil)
• Mix flowering plants (like marigold or nasturtium) to attract pollinators and predators of pests

Bonus:

Add legumes (like beans) that fix nitrogen in soil naturally

• Use mulch (straw, dried leaves, grass) to retain moisture and feed soil
• Water early morning or sunset to reduce evaporation
• Collect rainwater if allowed in your area

• No pesticides or chemical fertilizers
• Let beneficial insects (ladybugs, worms) thrive
• Add a small bird bath, bee hotel, or wildflowers nearby

• After harvest, plant cover crops (clover, rye, buckwheat) to protect and heal soil
• Leave some parts wild—let weeds and wildflowers grow in patches to build biodiversity
• Return plant waste to compost or back to soil

Easy Learning Resources:

• Books:
  “Gaia’s Garden” by Toby Hemenway
  “The Regenerative Grower’s Guide to Garden Amendments” by Nigel Palmer
• YouTube Channels:
  Huw Richards, GrowVeg, The Urban Farmer (Curtis Stone)
• Apps:
• From Seed to Spoon – what to plant, when
• PlantNet – identify wild herbs/weeds that help your garden
• GrowIt! – community gardening support

Growing regeneratively is not just about food. It’s about:

• Reconnecting with natural cycles
• Contributing to healing the Earth
• Becoming more self-reliant and nourished