Soil regeneration faqs

Learn all about soil regeneration and why it’s important.

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Diy Soil regeneration guides

Start regenerating your soils today with these useful DIY guides made by local soil experts.

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book a soil-related workshop

Find out about the different soil-related workshops on offer in the ACT and how you can book one for your community group, class, etc.

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Soil Regeneration FAQs

What is soil?

Soil is the thin layer of material that covers most of the land on Earth. It’s made up of a mix of tiny rock particles, organic matter (like decaying plants and animals), water, air, and living organisms like worms, fungi, and bacteria. It may look simple, but soil is teeming with life and activity!

Soil varies with the landscape. Different types of soils are classified depending on how much sand, clay, or silt they contain, and how much organic matter is present. These differences affect what can grow in a particular area and in turn what creatures will call that area home. Healthy soil is soft and crumbly, holds water well, and has a pleasant earthy smell.

Soil forms very slowly over time as rocks break down and organic materials build up. Because of this, it’s considered a non-renewable resource in human lifetimes and needs to be treated with great care.

Why is soil important?

Soil is the foundation of nearly every ecosystem on the planet, providing important services that give rise to healthy plants, healthy people, and a healthy planet! Whether it is the food you eat, water you drink, air you breathe, climate you live in, medicines you take, matierals you use or natural environments you enjoy, almost everything humans need and want comes from the soil. Below are a few examples of the different services soil provides.

Climate regulation: soils are a key component of the carbon, nitrogen, and water cycles, impacting both the level of greenhouse gases (CO₂, CH₄, and N₂O) and water vapor in the atmosphere.

Medium for plant growth: soil produces the raw materials that form the base of our global economy, providing food, fiber, flowers, fuel, pharmaceuticals and more.

Water filtration: as water moves through the soil, clay and organic matter, which carry an electrical charge, bind to contaminants, removing them from the water.

Nutrient cycling: as soil microbes feed on roots, residues, and organic matter and organisms prey on each other, nutrients are released for plant uptake.

Water storage: soil microbes, roots, and organisms that burrow through the soil stick particles together and build structure, allowing water to infiltrate the soil. The more clay and organic matter, the more water a soil can hold.

Carbon storage: plants use CO₂ to make sugars and proteins, some of which they pump out their roots to feed soil life. Living and dead biomass, decomposing plants, and animal residues store carbon underground, reducing CO₂ in the atmosphere.

Habitat for biodiversity: soils harbor ¼ of the world’s biodiversity. Over a billion organisms live in one handful of soil and 90% of insects spend a portion of their lives underground.

Engineering medium: soils support our homes, buildings, infrastructure, and parks. The type of soil (sand, clay, etc.) and its load-bearing capacity must be considered when laying a foundation.

Historical record: like chapters in a book, soils record the history of past climate and vegetation, as well as the rise and fall of civilizations.

How can we regenerate soil?

Regenerating soil means restoring it to a functioning and resilient state so it can continue supporting plants, storing water, and sequestering carbon. There are many different things we can do to regenerate soil.

One foundational step is adding organic matter: compost, aged manure, leaf mold, or mulch introduce food for microbes, improves water retention, and enhances soil structure.

Growing cover crops (such as legumes, grasses, or clovers) during off-seasons protects soil from erosion, adds root channels for air and water movement, and—in the case of legumes—fixes nitrogen from the air into the soil. Minimizing tillage preserves the delicate soil architecture and the habitats of soil organisms.

Diversifying plantings through crop rotation or intercropping prevents nutrient depletion, reduces pest outbreaks, and fosters balanced soil biology.

Incorporating biochar or rock powders can replenish trace minerals. In gardens and urban settings, simply avoiding walking on beds, using raised planters, and planting deep-rooted perennials can rebuild compacted or depleted soil over time.

By combining these practices—adding organic inputs, protecting soil cover, reducing disturbance, and diversifying plants—we can bring degraded soil back to life and ensure its productivity and resilience for generations to come.

DIY Soil Regeneration Guides

Carbon Capture factsheet

Composting factsheet

Hugelkulture how-to-guide

Soil & Fauna in the Home Garden factsheet

Native Plant Propagation factsheet

Soil-Related Workshops in Canberra

Workshops are listed in alphabetical order.

Biochar

With Canberra city farm

In this workshop we will convert the farm's orchard prunings and other organic material into biochar for use in the gardens.  This is a hands-on workshop where you will participate in:  

• loading the wood into the retort  

• firing up the retort  

• learning how to hydrate and inoculate the biochar   

• preparing soil under trees, and   

• applying the biochar to the soil  

We will describe alternative ways of making biochar without using a retort.  We will also discuss the advantages of adding hydrated and inoculated biochar to your garden soil. 

Carbon & Soil

With Fiona Buining

An introduction to the relationship between carbon and soil. This workshop builds an understanding of carbon in the atmosphere, soil and plants. You will learn about humus - what it is, how it is formed and the vital role it plays in your soil. Fiona will outline practical ways to capture carbon in your soil to build healthy soils and plants, and increase the water and nutrient holding capacity of your soil. This includes a range of composting methods and garden bed preparation. 

Please note, Fiona runs a range of workshops centred around growing food and can tailor a workshop to your needs and interests. Please enquire for more information.

Caring for Your Soil Microbiology

With canberra city farm

Have you ever wondered how nature built and maintained soil fertility before soluble salt fertilisers became available last century?  We will introduce some of the remarkable microbes in the soil which built soil fertility over hundreds of millions of years before the invention of artificial fertilisers and we will explore how to use them in our own gardens.    

Attendees will participate in collecting beneficial soil borne microbes from the local environment and brewing them to multiply their numbers.  We will then  apply those microbes to the soil to create a balanced microbiological soil ecology which is the key to growing healthy nutritious plants.  

For this process to be successful it is essential to first create appropriate garden soil characteristics.  This will be explored in the workshop "Understanding your Garden Soil".

Dirt Matters — A Journey in the Mycosphere

With Dr Alison Pouliot

The need to produce high quality food while minimising environmental damage is one of the biggest challenges for Australian agriculturalists. Healthy biological soils are crucial to plant health including our food crops. In turn, human health depends on high food quality and hence good soil health.  

Modern agriculture with its intensive use of chemicals, fertilisers and mechanical disturbance has largely eliminated soil organisms. However, innovative farmers and gardeners are turning things around by fostering fungi and other organisms within soils. Central to this is an understanding of symbioses between plants, fungi and their kin.  

This talk provides an overview of the vital significance of fungi in soils and their roles in creating soil architecture, retaining water, increasing nutrient availability and maximising drought resistance. Greater attention to fungal-plant relationships can help us build resilience of our ecosystems, especially at a time of changing climate and water scarcity. 

Please note, this is just one of about two dozen workshops on offer. Please enquire for further information. 

SoilEd CBR was published in 2025 with assistance from the ACT Government under the Community Zero Emissions Grants Program.