Paul James

You compost is a step in the right direction . If you have no problem with critters coming into your yard and digging , you could also try trench composting . I dig a few holes every month or so and drop in a big pile of kitchen waste and cover  . Give it three or four months and plant a tree on top . I’ve doing that for forty years !Not just fruit and nut trees but trees for timber , firewood and habitat .  My grandad always planted tomatoes like that but he used unwanted fish heads and guts . Four inches of compost on that, then his tomato seedlings . He grew the best tomatoes . He was all for improving the soil , and compost is our starting point

Welcome from Down Under . We grow a lot of various beans in southern Australia . Last year we had a veritable forest of broad beans/ fava beans  . Processing those takes a whole day what with blanching, shelling and packaging beans in meal size quantities for the freezer . The material left over is dug back in as a green manure , That ensures the fertility of my soil . I love a closed loop growing system without bringing in too much from outside our property . Snow peas and sugar peas get processed at the same time too . Then the Spring beans ….wow, what diversity of seeds I can source from a Melbourne-based seed saver network . My grandson loves ‘magic beans ‘ , the purple runner beans that turn green when cooked .” Pa, you’re just magic “ , he says .Beanz Meanz Life .  Cheers from Down Under