Totorus

Photo credit by cwwycoff1

When it comes to fertilizing your garden there are many options you can choose. Everyone wants full blooming flowers, and abundant vegetable plants. The gardening aisles are filled with liquid plant foods, powders, soil additives and even stakes and pellets for the garden. All of these will meet your garden’s requirements for growing great plants, including vegetables or flowers. However if you are concerned about the environment, or just simply prefer to go a natural route for fertilization, you should be looking at organic fertilizers.

Many of the items found in organic fertilizers are items that you can find and use to make your own fertilizer. Seed meal, lime, sulphur, and kelp are all pretty common organic items that you can find at farming stores. So choosing to fertilize organically can be as easy as purchasing a product or as difficult as mixing your own composition. Depending on your level of soil and gardening knowledge, sometimes it may be better to by a pre-packaged formulation. But if you are especially knowledgeable about your soil, you may prefer the exactness of your own formula. The best thing about organic fertilizers is that any mistakes are much easier to correct than mistakes made with chemical fertilizers.

Compost makes an excellent organic fertilizer, providing nitrogen, calcium and many other nutrients that growing plants need. Many gardeners and farmers keep their compost pile right on the edge of the garden.

Here is an easy method of making your own organic fertilizer:

Collect fallen leaves and grass clippings. Dig a hole roughly 1 foot deep by 2 feet long in the ground leaving loose soil in the hole. Add in the leaves and clippings and water thoroughly. Place all of your household organic waste in the hole. This includes, egg shells, fruit rinds, coffee grounds and grains. To keep with the organic composting, you can dump the water from your fish tank in the compost pile whenever you clean the tank. Continue layering and adding in both indoor and outdoor waste materials and keep the compost pile damp. As the waste breaks down, mix in a few shovelfuls of soil and turn it every few weeks. Before you know it you will have a rich soil like product to add to your garden.

You can also keep a compost barrel that rotates to mix the compost or a simple compost bin if you don’t want to dig the hole.

The main benefit of organic fertilizers is that the natural ingredients absorb into the soil, and amend it, causing the entire garden area to improve. Natural fertilizers don’t wash away easily, they continue to decompose and treat the soil, which in turn makes the soil itself a form of fertilizer. Choosing organic fertilizers will protect the environment, your family who will be eating the fruits of your efforts and also won’t harm wildlife or pets.

Organic fertilization is a choice that is being made my more and more professional gardeners for their vegetable gardens and flower beds, to produce award winning flowers and vegetables. But choosing organic fertilizer is an excellent and easy option for amateur gardeners as well.