One Yard Revolution: What Is Biochar and What Are Its Benefits?

I’ve been intrigued by the possibilities of biochar as a soil amendment for quite some time. Despite my interest, however, I had never used it in our garden — in part because I wanted to learn to make my own biochar and just hadn’t gotten around to doing it.

But with winter approaching and less work to do in the garden, I decided now would be a good time to learn. I did some reading and watched a number of YouTube videos, but I learn best by doing, so I decided to jump right in and make a simple biochar stove and some test batches of biochar.

At this point, I haven’t worked out all the kinks, but I am producing some decent biochar as I test out the stove, and I’m already putting it to use in the garden. So, I thought today I’d just talk about the benefits of biochar, and once I get all the kinks worked out in the stove, I’ll make another video featuring the stove and how I use it to make biochar.

OYR is all about growing a lot of food on a little land using sustainable organic methods, while keeping costs and labor at a minimum. Emphasis is placed on improving soil quality with compost, mulch, and compost tea. No store-bought fertilizers, soil amendments, pesticides, compost activators, etc. are used.