5 Great Natural Plant Fertilizers You Can Make At Home
Below, we look at 5 ways to fertilize your plants without having to immediately run to the store.
19/10/2022
Gardening is a hobby beloved by many. The joy
of seeing your plants grow to be big and healthy
is like no other.
You get an emotional
attachment to your plants and want them to have
the best chance at life. One of the ways to
achieve this is through fertilizer.
Just like humans, plants need nutrients in
order to grow, fertilizer provides this. While
you can go out and buy some plant fertilizer,
you probably already have everything you need
for home fertilizers.
In this article, we
cover 5 ways to fertilize your plants without
having to immediately run to the store.
You can find out more information about
gardening from an
Expert Gardening Website.
Grass Clippings
You don’t have to worry about throwing out
bags of grass clippings, they can be used as
fantastic fertilizer. Once you’ve mowed your
lawn, simply spread them onto your soil.
Not only does it feed nutrients back into the
ground, but it can also create a mulch that
stops weeds from growing. Fallen leaves can also
be used with your grass clippings. They also
provide nutrients and help the soil to retain
moisture.
You can also use weeds as
fertilizer, you just need to soak them in water
for a couple of weeks to ensure they won’t
spread when poured on your plants. The water
they are soaked in will be filled with all the
nutrients once it turns brown.
Kitchen Scraps
Any food waste is great to create compost to
use on your plants. Organic foods like fruits
and vegetables are best for this.
Banana
peels are particularly
good for plants that need
a lot of potassium, like roses.
You can
also use eggshells as fertilizer. Similar to
lime, eggshells can lower the acidity of the
soil. They also provide calcium to the plants.
Crushed eggshells are also a fantastic way
to keep slugs off of outdoor plants.
Manure
Manure has been used as a fertilizer for
hundreds of years. Make sure it is mixed in a
composting solution because pure manure can
provide too many nutrients to the plants at once
and damage them.
Manure is very high in
nitrogen and nutrients that plants need in order
to grow healthily.
While it may seem
off-putting at first, manure is a very effective
fertilizer. The smell only lasts for a small
amount of time before it turns into mulch.
Coffee Grounds
If you are a religious coffee drinker, then
you finally have a use for the leftover coffee
grounds. Simply spread your coffee grounds over
the soil and you get an incredible fertilizer.
Coffee grounds are particularly good for
plants that thrive in acidic soil like tomatoes,
roses, and blueberries. They also have the
benefit of making your garden smell amazing.
The
smell of coffee can also be off-putting to cats.
So if you find local cats crushing your flowers
or using your plant pots as their own personal
litter trays, then coffee grounds can help to
stop that.
As well as putting straight
coffee grounds on your soil, you are able to
make something called ‘garden coffee’. This is
when you soak the coffee grounds and coffee
pucks in water for a couple of weeks before
watering your garden with it. This can help the
nutrients from the coffee grounds penetrate your
plant easier.
Homemade Fertilizer
On top of all these super easy plant
fertilizers, you can make a homemade fertilizing
solution, and most of the ingredients you
probably already own.
All you need is
Epsom salt, baking soda, and ammonia. These are
all common household products that can provide
nutrients to your plants.
Epsom salt
contains magnesium and sulfur that helps plants
absorb nutrients from the soil, baking soda
protects the plant against fungal diseases, and
ammonia binds airborne nitrogen which is needed
for plant growth.
If you own a fish tank
then you can use the water in it for your
homemade fertilizer. Any water that you were
planning on discarding is filled with nutrients
that are helpful to your plants.
Final Thoughts
Hopefully, these at-home fertilizers can help
you achieve the garden of your dreams. When
compared to store-bought fertilizers, these are
all relatively inexpensive but effective
alternatives.
While all these fertilizers
can help your garden, it is important to listen
to your plants. Depending on their needs, time
of year, and climate, the fertilizer your plant
needs may change and you will need to adapt to
them.