How to make your garden more sustainable: Nitrogen fixers, compost, and crop rotation

Joel Hitchens

Growing up on Cape Cod, one thing that was consistent between my yard and farms I worked on was that they all had sandy soil. One of the benefits was that this soil provided great conditions for various plants. I have sandy soil to thank for the hours I got to spend in my backyard harvesting strawberries. However, a big challenge with sandy soil is that it drains almost too well. When water passes through it, the water removes many of the nutrients that plants need to grow. One particularly important nutrient that gets removed is nitrogen, which is critical to plant growth. 

Unfortunately, many gardeners and landscapers account for the nitrogen deficiency in their soil by using a significant amount of artificial fertilizers. This is problematic, particularly in coastal regions or areas that have large bodies of fresh water nearby. The fertilizer will work for a short period and enhance plant growth, but soon the excess nitrogen will be washed out of the soil. Of course it doesn’t just disappear, this nitrogen gets fed into the water table, ponds, lakes, and the ocean. The problem with this is that too much nitrogen in the water can cause significant damage to the environment through a process called eutrophication. This process involved algae blooms which, when they die and decompose, remove oxygen from the water. Less oxygen in the water means fish and other marine wildlife cannot grow or survive as effectively, and in some cases the loss of oxygen can be so extreme that the water becomes hypoxic. This is more commonly known as a “dead zone.” The degenerative effects of this process on the water around the Cape has caused the disappearance of species like eel grass and environmental damage that will take billions of dollars to rectify. In that area, overuse of fertilizers was one of the main contributors to the problem.

This is a long way of saying: taking care of your garden and cultivating your soil responsibly and sustainably is important! You can be having a positive impact right from your own home. Three things that you can do to make your garden more sustainable are to plant nitrogen fixing plants, rotate your crops, and compost. 

Nitrogen fixing plants essentially take nitrogen out of the air, which plants can’t use, and convert it into a form that plants can use. One of the most common nitrogen fixers to put in a garden is legumes. This includes beans, peas, peanuts, clover, alfalfa, and vetch. These are great to include in your garden because they are also producing something you can use, so if your garden is small you aren’t having to commit space to something you won’t be able to harvest and use. 

Planting nitrogen fixers is worthwhile if you have nutrient deprived soil, but they are also useful for healthy soil. Most common edible garden plants remove nitrogen from the soil when they grow. Even if you have healthy soil, if you keep planting in the same place the soil will eventually become nutrient deficient. It is important to rotate your plants around your garden so that you can re-enrich the soil with nitrogen fixers after other plants have completed their life cycle. For a more detailed explanation of how crop rotation works and which plants require more or less nitrogen there is a helpful guide here!

The last thing you can do to sustainably make your soil healthier is to start composting. Hopefully if you are coming up with a lot of extra fruits and veggies after your harvest you are sharing them on Galora! But of course, there are inedible parts of most plants, and not all food gets eaten. Through composting, you can put your food waste to use by enriching your soil so that you will have better harvests the next year. Another added benefit is that you will be able to reduce reliance on artificial fertilizers, which can be damaging to your soil and your local environment. 

Through Galora we have seen people share seeds, plants, sprouts, yoga lessons, pottery, and all manner of things! I would love to see people connecting through compost. When I was living in an apartment in Boston a few years ago, I wanted to start composting in the backyard. Unfortunately, I was forbidden by my landlord, but I  wished that I could connect with someone nearby who was able to compost and give them my food scraps so that they didn’t go to waste. I think that on Galora, this type of exchange could become real for people who don’t have access to a space they can use for composting, especially in urban areas. To this end, I have actually added my own listing offering my food scraps up for composting. So, if there’s anyone in the San Diego area with a compost pile, send me a message! Exchanges like this are just one more thing we can do as participants on this platform to work towards our shared goal of building community, increasing food security, and doing it sustainably.