Tips On Fertilizing Your Garden

When you fertilize your plants is as important as how you do so, particularly with annual vegetable and flower gardens. These are best fertilized by digging in generous amounts of disease- and weed-free organic matter such as compost or well-rotted manure at least a few weeks before planting. This gives beneficial soil microorganisms time to begin the process of making the nutrients bio-available to the plant roots.

Synthetic fertilizers are more readily absorbed by roots than the nutrients from decaying organic matter, but some of those chemicals are in such concentrated amounts that they build up in the soil over time, creating an unbalanced environment for the beneficial soil organisms.

The most inexpensive and organic way to fertilize your plants is with home-made compost, using fallen leaves, untreated grass clippings, kitchen and disease-free yard scraps. In time, your yard and kitchen waste will break down into a nutritionally-balanced soil amendment that is rich with beneficial microorganisms. You can also create your own compost tea; as a foliar spray, it not only feeds your plants, but helps protect against pest and disease
infestations as well.

New seedlings and transplants should be watered in with a weak compost tea. Most trees, shrubs and bushes only need fertilizing in the early spring and late fall. Bulbs should be fertilized in the fall, especially since most of their critical growth occurs during the fall and winter months. Most plants will welcome a foliar spray of compost tea a couple of times a month. Kelp and fish emulsion also make a balanced fertilizer when mixed.

Heavy feeders do well with a side dressing of compost midway through their growth cycle. An organic mulch will help keep moisture in and weeds out and will eventually decay into compost.