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I can help you grow the tastiest tomatoes and the brightest blooms.
How to Make Homebrews for Healthier, Tastier Gardens and Flowers–
Time to feed your garden and bring on ripe cucumbers, beautiful gladiolas, and heavenly muskmelons.
Homebrews…DIY biological blends made with common ingredients—help you build fertility naturally, support microbial life, and boost plant health from the roots up.
Let’s do this.
Grass-fed Normande Beef
"Laura, your ground beef is delicious. I made a goulash and the freshness jumped right out of the bowl! Nothing like it!”
~Nancy
Understanding Your Soil Test
So, you got your soil test back. Now what?
Let’s walk through mine together so you know what to look for—and what to do next.
First up: pH levels
My test came back ‘Good’—near neutral is right where we want it for most vegetables and perennials. That means nutrients are more available to plants, and I don’t need to make big adjustments here.
📌 Why pH matters:
Soil pH is more than a number—it’s part of a delicate system. It influences how nutrients move, how microbes work, and how plants grow. It’s affected by your climate, what biology’s growing: plants, microbes, etc, your soil’s texture, and how you manage it.
That’s why the changes I make consider the effect on pH.
As Nicole Masters, an agroecologist, suggests, I “tickle” my garden and meadows, making gentle, informed changes that build resilience without shocking the system.
Steady stewardship in a regenerative mindset.
🌿 Next: Fertility.
My results show that the plants here need more nutrition to truly thrive. That’s common after a rainy spring like we’ve had. Also, our gravelly loam soil is excessively drained and high-leaching.
Building deep, humus-rich topsoil is helping to change these characteristics into soil that can hold and store more nutrients. For right now though, we only want to add what we (the plants and other living things) can use almost immediately.
So now it’s time to build a custom fertility plan—based on what the soil needs. Smart, balanced solutions tailored to your land and goals.
Let’s dig into how to do that in the next section…
What Does Your Soil Need to Thrive?
Let’s break it down simply. A soil test gives us a snapshot of what’s there—and what’s missing. How do we figure out what to add?
We look at two categories:
🔹 Macronutrients – the big four:
Potassium
Phosphorus
Magnesium
Sulfur
🔹 Micronutrients – trace minerals that pack a punch:
Boron
Copper
Molybdenum
Silicon
Zinc
This is when agronomist recommendations become gold. They take those test results and translate them into an action plan—one that helps you make meaningful, affordable changes without wasting time or money.
But Here’s the Thing…
I don’t just want to follow any fertility plan. I want one that fits my values:
✅ Kind to the land
✅ Cost-effective
✅ Good for the bigger picture—soil, plants, water, wildlife
At SVTFarm, we have three distinct zones—garden, high-tunnel, and pasture. Each is managed a little differently, and we tailor fertility inputs for each one.
Take a peek at my cost sheet and see exactly how I figure this out.
While We’re Here…
I still haven’t figured out how to farm without animals—and honestly, I don’t want to.
Their manure is precious. It’s more than excrement—it’s wealth. It brings life back to the soil. It’s a biological way of recycling.
That might sound old-fashioned or even controversial in some circles. But my background in animal husbandry taught me this: grazing livestock, done right, heals land. It makes plants stronger, soil deeper, and ecosystems healthier.
Admitting my bias here—but it’s also my core belief:
The beef and lamb we raise at SVTFarm don’t just feed families—they feed the earth. It’s a vision of farming that values quality of life at every level—from the soil microbes in a life web all the way to your dinner plate.
And now, with that in mind…
Let’s make something your garden will love.
The next section walks you through the exact homebrews I use to support soil life, boost plant strength, and grow more flavor from the ground up.
👉 Ready to mix it up?
What Homebrewed Options Can I Implement Cheaply and Quickly?
If you're looking for fast, affordable, and biologically powerful solutions to support your soil and garden, homebrewed amendments are a game-changer.
One of my favorite resources is Nigel Palmer’s Regenerative Grower’s Guide to Garden Amendments. It helped me take my basic knowledge of homemade "land creams" to the next level.
Let’s start with one of the most useful and beginner-friendly brews:
🍶 Lactic Acid Bacteria (LAB) – Your Garden’s Microbial Booster
In his book, Palmer references methods for this recipe as outlined by Cho Ju-Young in Natural Farming Agriculture Materials.
You can grow this powerful culture right on your kitchen counter!
Step 1: Make a Lactic Acid Starter
Rinse 2 cups of rice with 1 quart of water, and save the rinse water.
Pour the ‘rice rinse water’ into a clean quart jar.
Label it “Lactic Acid Starter” with the date.
Leave it loosely covered in a warm, shaded spot (like a cupboard or counter) for 3–5 days.
While it sits, naturally occurring Lactic Acid Bacteria microbes begin to multiply.
🧪 What’s Happening While You Wait?
Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are naturally found in healthy soils, fresh foods, and our own homes. This amendment “floods the zone” with beneficial, acid-tolerant microbes that help suppress pathogens and improve soil digestion by ‘filling up the receptors’ with beneficial players thereby suppressing the opportunities for harmful ones.
Once your starter is ready, you’ll see three layers:
A film or surface layer
A lightly cloudy middle layer (this is the good stuff!)
Sediment on the bottom
Scoop off the top layer, then pour the middle layer into a clean jar. Label and refrigerate—it’s now your LAB starter culture.
Step 2: Make the LAB Culture
Combine 1 cup +4.8 oz of your LAB starter with 14 cups +9.2 oz of raw milk in a clean half-gallon jar.
Label and date it.
Set it aside at room temperature, loosely covered, out of direct sunlight for 5–7 days.
As it ferments, the milk will form a curd.
When the curds are firm, cut through them with a long knife to release the whey—this is your liquid gold!
📝 If you already have extra whey from your yogurt at home, you can skip straight to the whey—it's the same stuff!
Strain it and keep this yellowish, strained liquid in a labeled jar in the fridge. The curds can go to your pets or chickens—they’ll love you for it.
How to Use Lactic Acid Bacteria Culture in the Garden 🌱
Lactic Acid Bacteria is incredibly versatile. Use it to:
Improve soil aggregation, decomposition (humus creation), and tilth
Boost nutrient availability, especially phosphorus
Support overall microbial health in your garden beds and compost
Foliar Spray Recipe:
Mix ¾ teaspoon of LAB culture per 1 gallon of water (that’s a 1:1000 dilution).
Apply as a fine mist to leaves early in the morning or late in the day when they aren’t reducing transpiration due to heat stress. These times are when the stomates are open and can absorb the spray through the leaves, foliarly.
You’re not soaking the plants—just “tickling” them.
This can also be used as a soil drench and root amendment. Try to time this right before a rain.
Another curious use is as pre-planting seed dip or spray. Dr. Christine Jones educates us about ‘quorum sensing’ and the ability of seeds to bring their ‘A’ game when the conditions are sensed to be good for survival. This LAB culture spray does that and as farmers, we’ve noticed improved germination when we use LAB cultures in our ripsower land creams.
For further learning, explore the work of Dr. Christine Jones on quorum sensing and soil fertility, Nigel Palmer’s Regenerative Grower’s Guide to Garden Amendments, Jerry Brunetti’s The Farm as Ecosystem, Gerry Gillespie’s guidance on SPICE waste-reduction compost sprays, and Nicole Masters’ For the Love of Soil.
Natural, homebrewed amendments like Lactic Acid Bacteria cultures, burdock, nettle, and willow waters, vermiculture (worm farming), manure and worm casting ‘teas’, ripe fruit ferments, and working with ‘Indigenous Microorganisms’ (local bacteria and fungi) are some of the most effective, efficient, and intriguing strategies for building long-term plant and soil fertility.
See for yourself —
The change in photos above is striking after a week of foliar spraying LAB culture, Nettle plant ferments, worm-casting tea, and Sea-Crop amendments.
And keep in mind, we’re talking about 3/4 teaspoon per gallon of water.
It’s amazing the effect we’re seeing with such a diluted solution.
I’m Laura Burch—Farmer, Mom, Land-Healer at SVTFarm
humble homebrewed landcreams, sprays, and dips are a powerful, simple, first step in building a resilient, fertile, and beautiful garden from the ground up—literally.
Stay tuned—more powerful DIY—brews are coming in the next post.
👉 Want to make sure you don’t miss it?