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Healthy soil is the foundation of any good garden, and you don’t need chemical fertilizers to improve it. Some plants can naturally improve soil quality by adding nutrients, breaking up compacted areas, and promoting beneficial microbes.
These often-overlooked plants quietly improve the soil while offering other benefits, such as attracting pollinators, producing food, or simply looking aesthetically pleasing. Here are some of the best plants to grow for stronger, healthier soil.
Chicory
Chicory is often grown as an edible salad leaf, but this hardy perennial can also be left to its own devices to improve your soil. The long roots go deep into the soil, bringing up nutrients that other plants can’t reach. If you don’t like the slightly bitter flavor of the leaves, chop them down for biomass instead.
Plantain
Plantain is often dismissed as a ‘weed’, but it is actually a soil-building champion! It is known as a pioneer plant, as it frequently grows in poor soil, where its deep taproot can break up compacted earth and draw up minerals.
The abundant leafy top growth is also valuable organic matter and an excellent compost accelerator.
Comfrey
Comfrey is the ultimate soil improver, which is why fans of permaculture gardening rave about it.
These fast-growing plants have deep roots that can access an abundance of nutrients from deep underground, making them available to shallower-rooted plant companions. Chop back the leafy growth periodically to make a natural mulch that feeds your soil.
Peas
Peas are the multitaskers of the plant world. They fix nitrogen in the soil, feed pollinating insects, and offer a bountiful yield of delicious pods. At the end of the growing season, chop the vines down and leave the roots in the soil for an extra boost of nutrient-rich organic matter.
Fava Beans
The winter months are the ideal time to start building good soil, but why not let fava beans do the work for you? These cool-weather legumes not only fix nitrogen in the soil but also provide good ground cover, help aerate the soil, and provide vital food for bees in early spring.
Fava beans can be grown as an edible crop or chopped down before flowering to serve as green manure.
Lupines
Did you know that beautiful lupines belong to the same plant family as
Sunflowers
Another beautiful addition to the garden,
Mustard Greens
In warmer climates, mustard greens are often grown as green manure over the winter months to add biomass and nitrogen to the soil.
These easy-to-grow plants also possess biofumigant properties, which means they suppress soil-borne pests and diseases. If allowed to flower, mustard greens will readily self-seed and pop up in any area of bare soil.
Daikon Radish
With their massive taproots, daikon radishes break up compacted soil, creating deep channels that improve drainage and aeration. They’re also excellent for suppressing weeds, and their abundant leafy growth can build up organic matter in the soil.
Clover
Both red and white clover are the perfect cover crop for areas of bare ground. These low-growing plants suppress weeds, fix nitrogen in the soil, and can be grown as a living mulch between taller plants. Chop clover down before it flowers to maximize its nitrogen boost, or let it bloom to feed the bees.
Borage
Beautiful borage accumulates nutrients in its foliage, which can then be chopped up for mulch. It is also a fantastic plant for pollinating insects, plus the edible blue flowers make a decorative addition to salads and cocktails.
Buckwheat
Buckwheat, along with rye and oats, makes a fantastic cover crop that outcompetes weeds, scavenges phosphorus, and decomposes rapidly to add organic matter to the soil.
Jerusalem Artichoke
Fast-growing
Yarrow
The benefits of
Alfalfa
Did you know that alfalfa roots can go up to 10 feet deep in the ground? This enables it to pull up nutrients from lower subsoil layers, boosting the soil’s mineral and nitrogen levels. The top growth can be chopped and dropped or added to compost heaps to boost organic matter levels.
