Soil is the foundation of a healthy garden…or homestead…or farm. For sustainable gardening that gives us nutritious food without depleting the land, we need to know how to feed and maintain living soil. After all, it’s the community of living things in the soil that feeds the plants we eat ourselves. That’s where Michelle Bruhn comes in. Michelle is a suburban homesteading author, speaker, and educator who manages the online information hub Forks in the Dirt. This week, she joins Erin (who’s always excited about home-scale regenerative agriculture) to talk about how she has turned a sandy suburban lot into a tiny paradise that produced almost seven hundred pounds of food in 2024.

Through the course of this conversation, Michelle gives us the dirt on a range of organic practices that build soil, feed it, and maximize its effectiveness, even in a short growing season. We’re talking composting in place with sheet mulching, lasagna gardening, and hügelkultur; supporting healthy soil food webs with companion planting, mulch, and cover crops; and extending the growing season with cold frames, hoop houses, and even plastic bins. If you think you’re already a master of all these things, so did Erin—and this interview got her out gardening in the early-March snow to try something she’s never done before.

If you want to keep learning from Michelle Bruhn, check out…

• Her online hub, Forks in the Dirt: (Here you’ll find courses, resources, and recipes for homesteading and gardening).
• Her book, Small-Scale Homesteading, co-authored by Stephanie Thurow
• Stephanie’s fermentation books which Michelle shouted out during the episode: 
• Michelle’s Substack newsletter

You can also find her on social media:

• Instagram: @forksinthedirt
• Facebook: @forksinthedirtmn

Citations:

Jeff Lowenfels’ book Teeming with Microbes, which discusses how adding Nitrogen fertilizer to soil decreases the Nitrogen produced by bacteria:

Lowenfels, J., & Lewis, W. (2010). Teaming with Microbes: The Organic Gardener’s Guide to the Soil Food Web. Timber Press (OR).

Michelle’s recommended source on nutrients and wood decomposition (correction: from USDA, not US Forest Service): 

Marcot, B. G. (2023, February 10). Ecosystem processes related to wood decay. DecAID. https://apps.fs.usda.gov/r6_decaid/views/ecosystem_processes.html

The study on nitrogen immobilization with wood decomposition that Erin referenced:

van der Wal, A., de Boer, W., Smant, W. et al. Initial decay of woody fragments in soil is influenced by size, vertical position, nitrogen availability and soil origin. Plant Soil 301, 189–201 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-007-9437-8

Sepp Holtzer, Hügelkultur expert

Holzer, S. (n.d.). Huegel Culture Design. Sepp Holzer Permaculture. Retrieved March 10, 2025, from https://www.seppholzer.info/huegel-culture-design/

Michigan State Extension Services study on the pest suppression abilities of mustard as a cover crop

Snapp, S., Date, K., Cichy, K., O’Neil, K., & Michigan State University, Department of Crop and Soil Sciences. (2006). Michigan farmers rely on a wide range of cover crops as vital management tools. In Michigan Farmers Rely on a Wide Range of Cover Crops as Vital Management Tools. https://midwestcovercrops.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/MI_2006_Mustards-A-Brassica-Cover-Crop-for-Michigan.pdf

Utah State Extension publication on squash beetles and blue Hubbard squash

USU Extension IPM program. (2021). Blue hubbard squash as a trap crop to suppress squash bugs. In USU Extension IPM Program. https://extension.usu.edu/planthealth/ipm/veg/Trap-Crops-Squash-Bugs.pdf

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Credits

Website Design and Illustration by Sophia Alladin

Intro and Outro Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/soundroll/when-my-ukulele-plays

License code: GWOIMMBAS15FG6PH

Timestamps

00:11 Introduction

01:00 Michelle Bruhn and Forks in the Dirt

03:10 Michelle’s Suburban Homestead

03:26 Lawns for Bees and for Kids

06:03 Growing Neighbours through Gardening

08:28 Sheet Mulching for No-Dig Garden Beds

11:39 Urban and Suburban Pollinator Habitat

17:22 Why Compost Instead of Chemicals?

23:10 Water Break

25:00 Leaf Mulch and the Law of Return

28:55 Lasagna Gardening

30:25 Hügelkultur: Turn Wood Debris into Soil

37:58 Fungal Decomposition Beats Bacterial Decomposition

38:48 Permaculture and Indigenous Knowledge

40:47 Companion Planting: Optimize the Plant Community

43:15 Using Trap Crops for Aphids

46:01 Yellow Mustard and Cover Crops

48:23 Growing Zones and Frost Dates

53:42 Season Extension in Cold Climates

1:02:36 Find Michelle Online

1:03:44 Outro and Contact Us