Live and learn anew. Once again I was drawn into intensive research on an old concept that turned out to be a new package.

This myth-busting gardener weighs everything up, more out of curiosity than argument. I want to know what is good about the bad and what is bad about the good, and he deconstructs fairy tales using facts.

There are countless examples of things that can be viewed as both positive and negative, regardless of their impact on us personally: pruning crepe myrtles, tolerating low-growing flowers in a lawn by mowing only what grows, using natural or synthetic pesticides, and letting large spiders roam free.

This is especially true of trendy advice from gardening gurus looking for perspective. Without trying to overthink or undervalue this, or dismiss the earnest efforts of more serious gardeners, “permaculture,” for example, is just modern packaging for common-sense gardening practices like composting, growing cover crops, mulching, collecting rainwater, attracting pollinators, reducing pesticide use, and the like.

Composting? There’s not much science to it. It’s just a special pile where we recycle garden waste and kitchen scraps, rather than paying someone to haul them away and then having us bring new stuff in from far away. This happens all the time in the forest, as fallen leaves are recycled directly from the ground, albeit much more slowly. Worm compost? Dried worm castings.

The old but newly popular technique called Hugelkultur simply involves piling up fallen branches, twigs and leaves, sprinkling them with a little soil, and then planting in and around the planting. Biointensive or square-foot gardening tends to just mix things up in small areas, rather than in uniform, space-consuming rows. And raised beds don’t have to be on the ground. They’re actually better half sunken and half raised. And they don’t need to be propped up on the sides, except for practical reasons or looks. Planting for pollinators simply means having lots of flowers and tolerating a few caterpillars.

But a few new, somewhat confusing terms are causing a stir: humus and biochar. I constantly hear and read about their advantages.

However, what is sold as humus is not technically humus, but just finished compost. Real humus is fully decomposed compost that is broken down into its most elemental form, which takes a very, very long time.

You’ve seen humus if you’ve dug in undisturbed soil. It’s that mysterious, compacted, sticky but crumbly brown layer. It takes years to build up. It’s what’s left after worms, bacteria and fungi have used up everything they could get out. I found it in the soil under my compost pile after I dug out the most useful stuff. Is it useful in a garden? Not necessarily – again, real humus isn’t sold anywhere and good compost works just as well anyway.

Biochar, a stable soil conditioner like ground charcoal, is made by smoldering wood and other garden waste in a pit covered with soil so it continues to burn but doesn’t have enough oxygen for the flames to turn it to ash. It contains nutrients and water and keeps carbon out of the atmosphere, but is especially beneficial in very poor, degraded soils. Is it worth a try? If you can afford it, sure, but I’m not convinced it’s practical for hobby gardeners with decent soil who only use mulch and compost.

I don’t mean to disparage these newfangled/old approaches. If you fancy turning home gardening into a complicated Olympic event, or if you’re into carbon sequestration and the like and it makes you smile, go for it. My traditional compost pile and bark and leaf mulch cover all my healthy soil needs without any fuss.

Felder Rushing is a Mississippi author, columnist and host of “Gestalt Gardener” on MPB Think Radio. Email gardening questions to (email protected).