Grow Your Soil!

Healthy gardens begin underground.

In Grow Your Soil!, certified permaculture designer and lifelong gardener Diane Miessler makes the science of soil health approachable—and genuinely fun—for everyday gardeners. As awareness grows around the importance of microbes and living soil, this book shows how anyone can build rich, dark, crumbly soil teeming with life, using a low-input, no-till, no–synthetic fertilizer approach.

Miessler shares the techniques she used to transform her own landscape—from compacted, degraded ground into a thriving garden—by working with natural processes rather than against them. Readers learn how practices like cover cropping, constant mulching, and simple compost tea feed soil life, improve structure, and support healthier plants from the roots up.

Engaging, encouraging, and grounded in real experience, Grow Your Soil! empowers gardeners to focus less on products and more on processes—proving that building better soil is one of the most effective (and satisfying) ways to grow resilient gardens.

Perfect for: home gardeners, permaculture-curious readers, native plant enthusiasts, vegetable growers, and anyone interested in regenerative, soil-first gardening.