Unlocking Self Sufficient Secrets: How to Add Nutrients to Raised Beds for Maximum Growth

If you're just starting out in self-sufficiency; the first thing you'll want to do is grow your own food. And, if you want to grow LOTS of food, you need to add nutrients to your raised beds and prepare your growing space well in advance of the main growing season.

In the Northern Hemisphere, the best time to add nutrients to raised beds and prepare your growing space is late January & early February.

That's about now (at the time of writing), so, here we go with a simple guide and accompanying video where I'll show you how I go about adding nutrients to raised beds to help you get started and grow lots of food this season.

Different Methods For Adding Nutrients To Raised Beds

The method I use to add nutrients to raised beds is not the only method in town but for me, it is the least amount of work using the organic matter I generate on my homestead.

There are several methods you could use:

• Composting
• Mulching
• Organic Fertilisers
• Cover Crops
• Organic Soil Amendments

My method is a combination of composting, mulching and organic fertilising because I use my own compost, my own mulch and my own chicken manure fertiliser and it all gets mixed up and spread over the raised beds.

It's important you do this at the right time.

The Importance of Seasons

I remember when I first started on this path towards self-sufficiency; I was so disconnected from when and where food really came from that I hardly recognised the necessity of understanding the true cycle of the seasons and their relationship with my food.

I had unknowingly given up my self-responsibility by mere virtue of being born into a city.

I later came to realise that not understanding this most basic of life facts was also affecting my health – because everything is seasonal. Cyclical, if you will.

A man may live in a city all his life and scarcely be aware of the seasons.

In The Self-Sufficient Gardener, (one of my favourite books on self sufficiency) John Seymour wrote that “A man may live in a city all his life and scarcely be aware of the seasons.” It's true. And that was 60 years ago. It's even worse now.

In the book, John talks you through the seasons and what you should be doing in each one and winter is the time to prepare your raised beds with dressings of compost, break up heavy clay soils, plant fruit trees and basically get ready for the year ahead.

I tend to do less in winter directly on my beds which is why it's a good time for me to add nutrients to my raised beds.

[Video] Add Nutrients To Raised Beds In Winter & Grow Lots of Food In Summer

For the rest of this guide I'll talk about how I go about adding nutrients to raised beds but if you'd rather watch and listen to me tell you how I do it then I made this video as well.

I'm sorry, it was one of my first so forgive the length but it does contain some useful info.

Why Do Raised Beds Need Nutrients Adding?

As with most things in life, when it comes to growing lots of food, preparation is everything.

One of the most revelatory moments I had was when I realised – no, appreciated. Truly appreciated – that soil is a living organism. After the Autumn harvest, for example, it doesn't just sit there waiting for you to plant more things into it next spring; it needs replenishing.

The bounty of food in Autumn comes at a price. Your bed has transferred some of it's precious energy into food for you to eat and now you need to restore it, ‘feed it,' in return.

The better replenished it is through Winter, the better quality the soil will be come spring. The better quality the soil, the better quality the crop.

It's a virtuous, wholesome and natural cycle.

Feed Your Soil Before Planting In It

The basic premise of ‘feeding soil' (aka soil replenishment or soil regeneration) is to put nutrients back into the soil that get taken up by the previous season's crops.

This works just the same if you're about to start growing in a virgin plot too and of course, if you want to add nutrients to raised beds.

You do it by adding things back into the soil like compost, leaves, or ‘green manure' (the leaves/leftovers of your summer crops). This is known as ‘mulching'.

You can also do it by letting things grow in the soil over winter like winter weeds with green foliage. The foliage acts as a ‘cover' to protect the soil beneath and encourage bacteria to grow.

I make my own compost throughout the year and we are surrounded by trees so I have a readily accessible supply of compost, leaves and green manure to cover (‘mulch') my beds.

If you're just getting started: take a couple of bags to the local park and fill it full of leaves – or offer to clear leaves off a neighbours property if they have trees.

Mulching Beds With Compost, Leaves and Green Manure

In late January or early February, I'll gather leaves, chop down my leftover crops and go to my compost bins and start piling my barrows with fresh compost.

My fresh compost doesn't always look like the fine stuff you buy at the garden centre. It's often chunky and soggy and looks like mud pie. This is perfectly fine to use and will break down over the beds as time goes by, feeding nutrients back into the soil.

(It would eventually look like the fine stuff you buy at the garden centre if left long enough or regularly fed and rotated in the compost bin.)

Once I've mulched over every open space (so that ‘old' soil is completely covered), I'll make sure it's all evenly spread and give it a good watering. Not a soaking, just a healthy watering.

Once the watering is done, I'll throw a tarpaulin over the bed, covering it completely. You don't need a tarp; you could grab any non transparent cover – like a blanket – and it'll do pretty much the same job.

The main thing you're trying to do here is trap heat and moisture in the bed because this will encourage the bacteria in the soil to flourish and the worms to do their thing.

Fun fact: A teaspoon of productive soil generally contains between 100 million and 1 billion bacteria!!

I'll leave the tarp on until Spring.

When Spring arrives, I'll remove it and let the compost soak up some fresh air for a few days before sinking a few fork holes into it before watering.

If you add nutrients to raised beds now, in late January or early February, your growing bed will be in tip-top shape come Spring and you'll be ready to grow lots of food.