→ What is regenerative gardening?
Regenerative gardening follows the principles of regenerative agriculture in the home garden. Regenerative gardens are organic and no-till or low-till. Other practices in regenerative gardening focus on building soil health, sequestering carbon, and low-input growing.

While regenerative gardening is more about land stewardship than it is about commercialism, there are still some products that would be helpful for home gardeners to have on hand.

The items listed are what I use frequently on my own homestead, and are what I recommend most often when explaining regenerative gardening techniques.

Quick list of essential regenerative gardening equipment:

1. Organic mulch material for garden beds: organic straw, organic hay, or organic weed-free grass clippings
2. Organic mulch material for pathways: wood chips
3. Compost Bin
4. A good pair of pruners
5. Loppers
6. Cover crop seeds (preferably in bulk)
7. Herbs and flowers
8. Bird feeder and bird bath
9. Soil test
10. Organic fertilizer
11. Garden hoe
12. Garden fabric row covers
13. Black tarp
14. Cover Crop Crimper
15. Broadfork
16. Drip irrigation
17. Rain water catchment system
    ‍

1. Organic mulch material for garden beds: organic straw, organic hay, or organic weed-free grass clippings

‍The top piece of “equipment” that you’ll hear all regenerative farmers and gardeners sing praises for is mulch. This is because mulch is an essential multi-purpose tool. Mulching around plants prevents weed growth, and keeps the soil hydrated for longer. This means that you’ll need to weed and water less in your mulched garden. Mulch also breaks down overtime, and adds organic matter to your soil and enrich its tilth. Mulch can also prevent certain diseases and pests from attacking plants.

It’s important to note that there’s one caveat to mulch: it must be organic. Yes, organic in nature in that it’s not man-made, but also that it did not have any synthetic pesticides or herbicides applied to it.

Unfortunately, a lot of conventional straw and hay is sprayed with a chemical called Grazon, which is a persistent herbicide. In farming, its meant to keep pastures free of weeds. But this herbicide also hinders the growth of many vegetables, especially bean plants.

2. Organic mulch material for pathways: wood chips

‍Wood chips are a great way to keep grass and weeds down in pathways, while also introducing beneficial fungal networks into your garden.

Wood chips are also fantastic for mulching around trees, shrubs, and woody perennials. The mulch here will offer the same benefits that it does to pathways, with the added bonus of improved water retention.

Wood chips are often obtained by regenerative gardeners for free with services like Chipdrop. You can also call a local arborist or powercompany to ask to be put on a list for chipped tree cuttings.

3. Compost Bin

‍A compost bin in the garden is a priceless tool that will help you to improve the quality of your soil and crops.

Food scraps, weed-free grass clippings, raked leaves, and plant cuttings can all be added to the compost pile and allowed to break down. Then, you can use it to top off your garden beds in the fall or spring.

I recommend a two or three compost bin system, so that while one bin is breaking down and resting, the other bins can have fresh organic matter added to them. Otherwise, there will always be non-composted material in your compost bin, which makes actually using your compost in the garden difficult.

If building isn’t your thing, have a look at this sturdy cedar compost bin option from Gardener’s Supply. It has the option to add on for a multi-bin system here, so you only need to pay for 3 walls on any additions.

Check out the cedar compost bin and add on at Gardener’s Supply

4. A good pair of Pruners

‍A solid pair of pruners is probably helpful in any kind of garden, regardless of if its regenerative or not.

However, in my garden, I like to work with pruners when I cut back spent plants at the base. Regenerative agriculture recommends that roots are kept in the ground whenever possible, even after a crop has been harvested. My goal is to keep the roots of any non-root vegetable or non-diseased plant in the ground. Usually, I turn to pruners to help me with that goal.

Pruners also help me with cutting back invasive plants in the yard, like Bull Thistle, Scotch Broom, or dandelions that grow in the rows.

I’ve also been known to terminate a cover crop by cutting it back to the ground with pruners, but most people would probably find this technique inefficient. See our recommendation for a roller crimper and black tarp below for an easier solution to cover crop termination.

I prefer pruners with a curved edge; my favorite are the Felco 2 Classic Hand Pruner. It’s really rugged, and all parts can be replaced so the tool will last a lifetime. Also, did you know Felco manufacturing is fully powered by renewable energy?

‍Check the pruners out here

5. Loppers

‍Sometimes, annual plants have such a wide and strong stem that pruners aren’t practical to cut them back to the base. Loppers are perfect for cutting back sunflowers, borage, and large brassica plants.

The Felco 201 Lopper is perfect because it has a bigger cutting capacity but isn’t as awkward as a longer handled lopper to carry around.

Get your  Felco 201 Lopper

‍6. Cover crop seeds (preferably in bulk)

‍Cover crops help to add organic matter to the soil, and improve soil tilth. They can also add nutrients to the soil, and some even are found to prevent pest and disease issues. Cover crops help regenerative gardeners to keep the soil planted, and maximize the amount of carbon sequestration that can take place in your garden during the off season.

If you always have a bulk bag of cover crop seeds available, it is way easier to plant out beds with cover crops as the season wraps up in the fall.

A general cover crop mix is great because you know that you’re accomplishing different soil health tasks at the same time. I recommend this one from Peaceful Valley Organic, which is edible too! You can purchase this cover crop seed by the pound, with great discounts for 10lb purchases or higher.

Pick up your cover crop seed here

‍7. Herbs and flowers

‍Maybe a funny category in a “equipment” list, but herbs and flowers really perform so many jobs in a regenerative garden.

Herbs and flowers provide inspiration for diverse plantings in the garden, which is a core strategy of regenerative gardening. These plants also provide food for pollinators and bring beneficial insects into the garden. In turn, you will have improved pollination and yields, and less pest problems.

8. Bird feeder and bird bath

‍Similar to how herbs and flowers bring in beneficial insects, a bird feeder and bath will help encourage birds to feed on pests in the garden. This has helped me the past few years manage a major slug problem without any chemicals.

9. Soil test

‍A soil test will help you to determine what nutrients are lacking in your soil. When you understand the nutrient content of your garden, you can better manage your fertilizer inputs.

Regenerative gardening supports tools and strategies that result in a low-input garden. A soil test may tell you that you actually don’t need heavy phosphorus fertilizer, or can help you to make a plan for ways to naturally boost the nutrient profile of your soil.

10. Organic fertilizer

‍While regenerative gardening works with homemade fertilizers and beneficial microbial inoculants, most regenerative gardeners also apply fertilizer to their garden.

It’s important to make sure that your fertilizer is derived from organic materials and isn’t synthetic. If you’re not sure, check for the OMRI label.

Synthetic fertilizers are harmful to the relationships between plants and soil microbes. As regenerative gardeners, we prioritize soil health, and healthy soil has a diverse microbiome. The application of synethtic fertilizer makes this relationship unnecessary, and so the microbes and fungi are no longer fed by the plants. In turn, the beneficial microbes and fungi cannot provide nutrients, water, and disease protection to the plant.

Since the soil microbiome is a crucial component of carbon sequestration, we want to ensure that we are uplifting their populations whenever possible.

My go-to organic fertilizer is the 4-4-4 veggie garden blend from Down to Earth Organics.

Get your bulk bag of organic fertilizer from Peaceful Valley Organics

11. Garden hoe

‍A favorite saying of mine when it comes to weeding is “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” This is because it is so much easier to tackle weeds when they are small, and to notice weeds and remove them before they go to seed.

A garden hoe is a fantastic tool to help with removing small weeds from garden beds and pathways. It works best on garden soil or partially broken-down wood chips. A hoe causes little soil disturbance and is used while the gardener is standing up, which is more comfortable for some than crouching or kneeling.

I prefer a narrow flat hoe like this one from Rogue as opposed to a stirrup/hula hoe. For some reason the stirrup hoe never quite gets the weeding job done for me, while the angle I can get from a utility hoe works for me every time. The 4” width is great for weeding around plant rows.

Get your garden hoe from Rogue

12. Garden fabric row covers

‍Lightweight fabric row covers are really helpful for preventing pests from eating or laying eggs in your crops.

I’ve found lightweight fabric row covers to be really helpful in keeping strawberry blossoms and fruit from getting eaten by deer and birds. It’s also great to put out to cover brassicas when you start to see cabbage moth butterflies around.

This simple tool helps regenerative gardeners to prevent pest issues and helps keep chemical inputs down. Farmer’s Friend offers one in a few sizes, and Bootstrap Farmer also offers bigger lengths.

Buy a garden fabric row cover from Farmer's Friend

Buy a garden fabric row cover from Bootstrap Farmer

13. Black tarp

‍A heavy-duty well-made black plastic tarp is a multi-purpose tool in a regenerative garden. You can use it to cover areas of grass before installing new beds or gardens. During the heat of the summer, the black plastic will warm up. Higher temperatures combined with a lack of sunlight will naturally kill off your grass.

The same principle applies for areas of the garden where weeds have gotten out of control.

A black tarp covering is also utilized in regenerative no-till farms and gardens for terminating cover crops organically. After a week or two, the cover crop will have died back. Then, the cover crop residue can remain in place as a mulch and ground cover that can be planted into. The cover crop roots are kept in the ground, which allows for their captured carbon to remain in the soil. The roots will also break down to add organic matter to the garden.

Get a sturdy black tarp from Bootstrap Farmer

14. Simple Cover Crop Crimper

‍As an alternative to the black tarp method of cover crop termination, a roller crimper is a tool commonly turned to in regenerative organic no-till farms and homesteads.

For the average home gardener, a roller crimper is a piece of equipment that is unnecessary. However, the same idea can be simplified into a homemade crimper that allows the gardener to crimp back the cover crop by walking on board or t-post over the crop.

In this process, often the stem will break at soil level. This keeps roots in the ground, which is a core principle of regenerative gardening.

The Seasonal Homestead shows one of these homemade cover crop crimpers in action here.

15. Broadfork

‍If you’re planning a brand new garden, or if your garden has in-ground beds that are on the newer side, a broadfork is a great investment to have for your backyard.

In the world of no-till, a broadfork is a gentler way to loosen up clay and compacted soils when compared to tillage. Tilling or digging the soil slices up fungal networks, and exposes sequestered carbon to the surface where it goes back into the atmosphere. Studies have shown that tilling actually increases weed pressure and reduces crop yield.

As an alternative to tillage, a broadfork allows you to aerate the soil without turning it. You step on the top of the broadfork to insert the prongs of the broadfork into the in-ground bed. Then, you pull the handles back toward you so that the prongs of the fork lift up a section of soil. Then, you let the soil come back into place as you remove the fork.

Depending on your soil quality, broadforking may need to be done a few times to an area in order to get the soil quality where you want it to be. Brand new in-ground gardens created over compacted clay soil will probably need a few rounds of broadforking over the course of a few years. Established in-ground gardens that have been grown in for a couple of years may only need one pass with a broadfork.

We have two broadforks on our homestead. My husband likes this one from Meadow Creature, which is probably the one I’ve seen most recommended. However, I find it easier to use this one from DeWit. I like the feel of the DeWit broadfork vs Meadow Creature, and the foot stop on the DeWit is a lot more ergonomic to stand on when broadforking.

Get a broadfork from Meadow Creature
Get a broadfork from DeWit‍

16. Drip irrigation

‍Drip irrigation may not be practical for every regenerative garden, but it is a great water conservation tool to install if possible.

Drip irrigation saves up to 80% of water when compared with overhead watering. For me, drip irrigation is essential to help me water my garden through dry summers. We have well water which does not have enough capacity to water our 1 acre of garden space sufficiently. We instead rely on a rain water catchment system. It’s common to receive very little rain from June through September where I live, so any water we can save is essential to the well-being of our gardens.

Drip irrigation is also a crucial part of disease prevention in certain plants. Tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants really benefit from drip irrigation, as blight that lives in the soil can be splashed up onto the plant to infect the leaves. Drip irrigation causes no splashing and so blight might be mitigated with this piece of equipment.

17. Rain water catchment system

‍As I alluded to in the drip irrigation recommendation above, I highly recommend a rain water catchment system of some kind for your regenerative garden.

With the rise in droughts and the expense of water, a rain water catchment system can provide water to your garden when it needs it most. Rain barrels can collect water off of roofs, barns, or even tarps to provide catch rain when it falls for later use in the garden.

We have large rain barrels with hoses attached to the bottom of the barrels. The hoses are connected to a water pump that we plug in when running drip irrigation or hand watering our plants in the dry summer months.

Transition your Garden
to Regenerative Practices:

Learn all about the principles of regenerative gardening and how to apply them to your current garden.

Grow more food, build soil health, and capture carbon, all in your backyard.

Learn how to make a regenerative garden here.

‍

‍

‍