February 10, 2021

Fertilizing is a human concept. In fact, using fertilizers on plants was never necessary until humans disrupted nature’s perfect system of nutrient cycling.

Let’s take a look at one of nature’s most awe-inspiring places: The Forest. Every spring, the deciduous trees of the forest create abundant, green leafy growth that is full of all the nutrients needed to sustain tree life. The trees hold those nutrient-filled leaves through the summer. The leaves eventually fall, covering the forest floor around the base of the tree they fell from. There are also branches, bark, seeds, stems, animal droppings, and other organic materials that have been layering on top of one another. Depending on the age of the forest, this cycle of growth & return has been occurring for tens, hundreds, or even thousands of years.

The layers of organic material are never removed from the forest floor, effectively providing all the nutrients the trees need to thrive. Thus, the forest trees do not require ‘fertilizer.’

This recycling of organic matter is nature’s perfect fertilizing system, and has been phrased as “The Law of Return,” by Alfred Howard, a 19th century pioneer of organic farming.

For our gardens, the important takeaway is this: Whatever is growing in your garden, be it a tomato, a squash, or a cabbage, that plant is utilizing nutrients from the soil it grows in. The plant stores those nutrients in its body while it grows. When we fully remove the plant from the soil, we must replace those nutrients. We can do this, in part, by letting the leaves drop, leaving the roots in tact, or even allowing the whole plant to decompose in the garden over winter. We can mimic the forest.

ways to practice nutrient-cycling & the law of return in your garden

One way I practice The Law of Return in my flower farm is by leaving leaf matter behind. I fondly refer to this practice as “Chop n Drop” — a term I used for years before learning about Howard’s Law of Return. Chop ‘n Drop just made sense to me, that I should be leaving part of the plant behind to decompose and give back to the soil microbiome.

I perform Chop ‘n Drop in a few ways on my farm, as described below.

weeding & the law of return

When I’m weeding, as long as the weeds haven’t gone to seed, I pull the weed out and leave the entire weed in its place on top of the soil (only if it’s a weed that does not propagate by root cuttings - this requires some “weed knowledge”). Leaving the whole weed in place on top of the soil works well on a hot day where it will die in place. I do this with chickweed, purslane, clover, mallow, dead nettle, dandelion, chicory, and lambs quarters (also realize all of these weeds are edible, so consider eating them!)

If the weeds do aggressively propagate by the roots then I simply remove the leaves, throw the leaves back onto the soil to decompose, and dispose of the root. I do this with aggressive plants such as mugwort, motherwort, milkweed and nutsedge. As a side note, milkweed is an endangered plant and I do intentionally leave it in certain areas for the monarch butterflies to feed.

harvesting & the law of return

I always strip leaves as I’m harvesting flowers. This way, all that good organic matter is left in place. I am still removing the stem and bloom from the garden, but at least the leaves are returned. This is an incredibly easy, simple process of simply dropping the leaves onto the soil and letting the soil microorganisms work their magic.

This is a bed of dahlias post-frost, but you can see in the middle of the bed where I spent all summer throwing their leaves down and letting them decompose.

overwintering & the law of return

One of the most interesting things I do on my farm is unlike what most farmers and gardeners do — at the end of every growing cycle, I do not pull my plants out of the ground. Rather, I cut the stems at the soil line and leave the roots totally in place. The roots provide a food source for fungi and other soil microbes during the winter while their strong root bodies also prevent soil erosion in heavy rains and snowmelt.

Leaving the roots in place in my garden increases the mycorrhizal fungi connections. As the roots decompose, air pockets are left behind that hold moisture. This effectively increases the “soil moisture holding capacity.” The Law of Return is in full effect here, as I never actually remove the roots from the soil and let them decompose in place.

I shut down the flower beds by cutting the stems at the soil line and leaving the roots to decompose indefinitely.

As you can see in the photo above, by practicing The Law of Return on my farm I have effectively created beautiful beds of soil in just a few seasons.

By embracing nature’s perfect systems in our gardens, we can achieve beautiful results with less effort than conventional/chemical gardening and even help reverse climate change.

peace, love, and plant magic.

Fran Parrish