I am CONSTANTLY thinking about building soil. It’s a legitimate obsession at this point😝. Nutrient dense, high quality food comes from high quality soil. Since native Florida soil is far from high quality, improving it requires intentionality.

With that in mind, I’ve spent the last few months intensively planting all manner of beans.

Each week I have a container of bean seeds soaking, so that I have seeds ready for planting as I move about the farm. Recognizing that the Earth prefers to be covered, I know that if I don’t plant something in a bare space, Nature will seek to cover itself by accommodating weeds. Therefore, as I pluck a weed up with one hand, I use my other hand to slip a plump bean seed into the bare soil left behind. Less than a week later, baby bean plants can be found standing tall atop the soil.

Not only do the bean plants do the hard work of capturing nitrogen from the air & depositing it into the soil (serving as a natural plant fertilizer), but they also have gorgeous flowers😍

One of my current faves is the pigeon pea (a.k.a. gandules). Not only is the tree itself strikingly ornamental, but the pigeon pea flowers are stunning🤩! I’ve been succession sowing pigeon peas for months. I expect to be overwhelmed with pigeon peas— in the best possible way🤲🏾

I eat beans at least once, but often twice, per day so this strategy of using nitrogen fixing bean plants to regenerate the soil is perfect for me! I get to harvest beans (a task that I enjoy more than any normal person should😅) and provide for all of my dietary protein needs.

I’ve yet to identify a downside. There’s no need to purchase synthetic fertilizers when God gave us the mighty bean plant!