Ask HN: Best ways to increase biodiversity and productivity of land?

Have a little over a half acre at our house we want to maximize use of with no chemical fertilizers/unsustainable external input.

Do any of you have any personal, or professional, experience in this area?

We're running on a very small budget (most of you probably spend more on eating out/on coffee than we have for this) so I'm trying to go at this in a smart way as to maximize the effectiveness of money we input.

- On a well so obviously rain catchment is a priority, given we have an asphalt roof I'm hesitant to catch the water from the roof and will pmaking a small structure to act as a roof to collect rain which will ultimately also shelter compost pile. Not in budget this year as, without a truck, getting rain barrels shipped is cost prohibitive on its own not to mention getting the lumber to actually build a structure.

- Signed up for a chip drop but we're fairly rural so I doubt we ever get one, eventually I'd like to add a significant amount of wood chips to the property to further encourage water retention and add biomass to the soil.

- We will make raised beds where we grow most of our food - several year project as finances allow

- Vermicompost will probably be our first source of soil amendment this year as we really don't have a lot of fruit/vegetable waste so it'll be the quickest way for us to start getting yields, composting will take us quite a while to reach critical mass for compost.

- Fall I'll try to get my neighborsleaves, to continue to add more carbon/biomass and to also attempt to use it for heating a hoop house that hopefully I can manage to get built this fall

- Introducing native wild flowers this spring & working slowly on converting the lawn we aren't actively using to a clover/fescue/ryegrass/yarrow mix.

What else should I look at?

How would I go about improving beneficial fungal activity in the soi?

Best use for fallen branches/limbs?

Do I bother messing with biochar ammendment?