An Introduction to CHNOPS: The Chemistry That Connects All Life

We're going to take a completely different path into gardening and agriculture.

If you've spent any time around a farm store, garden center, or industry conversation, you already know how it usually starts: NPK. Nitrogen. Phosphorus. Potassium. Synthetic or natural. Liquid or granular. Ratios and recommendations.

We're not starting there.

Instead, we're going to start with how life itself is built — because plants, animals, soil, fungi, and humans all share the same fundamental truths.

Meet CHNOPS

This series begins with an acronym my daughter loved as a child when she first fell in love with chemistry — and still loves today:

(SCHNOPS) C–H–N–O–P–S

Carbon

Hydrogen

Nitrogen

Oxygen

Phosphorus

Sulfur

These six elements form the foundation of nearly every living thing you will ever grow, eat, raise, or care for.

Why CHNOPS Matters

When you think about gardening or farming, these are usually the last things you think about. And that's exactly what we're going to change.

Because whether it's green and rooted, walking on two legs, four legs, flying on wings, or pushing up a mushroom cap — life is built from the same six pieces. The soil doesn't escape that truth. Neither do we.

What You'll Learn in This Series

In this series, we're not going to start by asking "What fertilizer should I buy?" We're going to ask a better question:

What is life made of, and how does the garden assemble it?

Once you understand that, fertilizers stop being mysterious products and start becoming building materials. Soil problems stop being frustrating and start becoming diagnosable. Gardening stops being guesswork and becomes a conversation with biology.

We're going to learn something new together — something deeper than labels and ratios — and we're going to build our understanding from the ground up.

I hope you'll join me.