Winter is a time when I think about getting cozy and doing some self-repair work. Daily stretching, face masks, lots of sleep. Surprisingly, your garden desperately needs the same kind of self-help, and providing that help to your soil is as easy as doing a little detective work this fall.

It’s easy to think of soil as just dirt, but it’s much more complicated than that. When you’re gardening, both the texture and nutritional content of your soil are the most influential factors in the success of whatever you’re planting. You want rich soil that drains well, but has the ability to retain some moisture. It should be just sandy enough for good root growth, but too much sand won’t provide enough nutrients for most plants. It should be rich in nutrients, but not too much of any one nutrient, or it will send the wrong message to your plants.

The solution is threefold. First, every fall you want to top your beds with compost. Not all compost is created equal, so if you don’t make your own compost, don’t just throw horse manure in your garden. Choose compost that has been tested and is well decomposed. It doesn’t have to be expensive: I use city compost and have been very pleased with it.

This topsoil helps to replenish nutrients, but it also helps to restore the volume of your bed as your soil compacts over time and you lose some of it to erosion and pulling out plants each year.