Eco-conscious gardeners have always done their best to minimize the harm they cause--by not using synthetic pesticides or fertilizers, for example. But today's gardeners want to go beyond "do no harm" and have a positive effect on the environment. The goal of regenerative gardening is to leave the world a better place: to create living soil, improve habitats for insect pollinators and birds, reduce the presence of invasive species, minimize the gardener's carbon footprint and use of plastic, and help sequester carbon from the atmosphere.

Author Briana Bosch, founder of Blossom and Branch Farm, teaches the key principles for regenerative gardening: recognize the garden as its own ecosystem, know your soil, minimize the "purchased garden," build your soil armor, plant for biodiversity, create living soil, choose plants wisely, minimize soil disturbance, and close the garden loop. In addition to teaching all the skills necessary to carry out these principles, Bosch offers a season-by-season guide to implementing them--from when to start garden cleanup in the spring (later that you'd think, to avoid disrupting overwintering beneficial insects) to how to use cover crops strategically to enrich the soil and retain moisture throughout the year.