Soil & Compost
Smelly compost: why it happens and how to fix it
An ammonia or rotten-egg smell means too many wet greens and not enough air. How to rescue the pile, and how to build the next one so it doesn’t happen again.
Ruth Okafor · · 4 min read
MasterclassLiving Soil Masterclass
8 modules · 7 hr 7 min
MasterclassLiving Soil Masterclass
8 modules · 7 hr 7 min
Video masterclass
Living Soil Masterclass
Test your soil, then rebuild it with compost, mulch, cover crops and no-dig beds
with Ruth Okafor, soil scientist
$420
One payment, lifetime access- 42 video lessons, lifetime access
- 7 hr 7 min of video, at your own pace
- 14-day money-back guarantee
About the masterclass
Many garden problems start below the surface. Plants that sulk despite fertilizer, beds that bake hard in August and stay waterlogged in March, seedlings that never take off: usually the soil has stopped working, not run out of a nutrient. In this masterclass soil scientist Ruth Okafor shows how to read your soil, test it properly and rebuild it with compost, mulch, cover crops and less digging.
It was filmed over a full year on three very different sites: a community farm on red Georgia clay, a backyard on alkaline desert sand in Tucson, and a new-build lot outside Columbus, Ohio, where the topsoil had been scraped off and the fill compacted by machinery. You learn the jar and ribbon tests for texture, how to take a sample and read a lab report line by line, and how to build a hot compost pile that reaches 131°F. Then come worm bins, leaf mold, mulch, cover crops sown and ended without a tiller, and no-dig beds built straight on lawn.
Soil changes over seasons, not weeks, and the course is plain about it. Most gardens show a difference by the second year, with darker, crumblier soil that holds water longer; heavy clay and caliche can take three years or more. The focus is garden scale, from a few raised beds to a quarter acre, not farm fertility programs, and nearly every method uses materials you can find locally, often for free.
What’s included
- 42 video lessons in 8 modules, about 7 hours, filmed over a year on clay, desert sand and compacted fill
- Reading a lab soil report line by line, with a worked example from each site
- Hot and cold compost, leaf mold, worm bins and bokashi, step by step
- Cover crop mixes and seeding rates for fall and summer, and how to end them without tilling
- Printable soil workbook (88 pages) with test logs and a three-year plan
- Quarterly live Q&A with Ruth and a private student community
Who it’s for
- Gardeners whose beds produce less each year despite fertilizer
- Anyone working heavy clay, sand, caliche or compacted new-build soil
- Compost makers who want a faster, better-finished pile and to know where to use it
Curriculum
8 modules · 42 lessons · 7 hr 7 min of video
Lessons never expire: watch at your own pace, on any device, and come back to them when you’re out in the garden.
Also included
- Printable soil workbook (88 pages)
- Cover crop seeding chart for zones 3–10
- Quarterly live Q&A with Ruth
- Private student community
- What’s in a handful of soilFree preview10 min
- Texture by hand: the jar test and the ribbon testFree preview13 min
- Structure: crumbs, clods and pore space11 min
- Who lives in the soil, and what they do12 min
- The spade test: one hole, twenty minutes10 min
Your instructor
Ruth Okafor
Soil scientist
Works with community farms and home growers on soil testing, compost and cover crops, from heavy clay to desert sand.
Common questions
From the journal
Soil & Compost
Mulching the vegetable garden: when to do it and what to use
Straw, shredded leaves, cardboard or plastic: how to choose a mulch, how thick to spread it and why it pays to wait until the soil has warmed up.
Ruth Okafor · · 4 min read
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