From Dirt To Soil: Honoring Gabe Brown and The Soil Health Academy
“Regenerative agriculture is not a set of practices. It is a way of thinking. A way of seeing. It is how you live on the land.”
— Gabe Brown
At Woodshed Gardens, regeneration begins beneath the surface. The way we plant, teach, and tend is rooted in soil health. Few teachers have illuminated this foundation more clearly than Gabe Brown, author of Dirt to Soil and co-founder of the Soil Health Academy. His story reminds us that resilience lives in the living web beneath our feet.
Gabe Brown is a North Dakota farmer whose journey into regenerative agriculture began during hardship. Years of drought and crop failure nearly ended his farm. By turning toward natural patterns instead of extractive practices, he transformed 5,000 acres of depleted land into a thriving ecosystem.
His book Dirt to Soil and his educational work with the Soil Health Academy have guided farmers, gardeners, and land stewards around the world. Featured in the documentary Kiss the Ground, Brown helped bring regenerative principles to a global audience.
In Dirt to Soil, Brown offers both story and instruction. His principles include:
Knowing your context
Keeping the soil covered
Minimizing disturbance
Maintaining living roots
Maximizing biodiversity
Integrating animals
In the garden, these principles are not abstract. Composting becomes an act of reciprocity, returning life to its source. Mulching shields the soil, conserving water and sheltering microbial communities. Cover crops knit the ground together, protecting against erosion while feeding the underground web of life. Each act of tending affirms that soil health is the foundation of ecological vitality.
Soil holds memory. It carries the imprint of erosion and the healing of cover crops. It remembers the wounds of depletion and the gifts of restoration. Gabe Brown teaches us that when we tend soil, we are tending story, and when we protect the microbial web, we safeguard the resilience of future generations.
For this teaching, and for the humility with which he shares it, we honor Gabe Brown with gratitude. His work continues to shape how we see the ground beneath our feet: not as dirt to be managed, but as living soil that holds the possibility of renewal for both land and people.
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