How to make your natural fertilizer?

Your houseplants, vegetable garden or even your lawn will need to be fertilized regularly to ensure their growth. Although there are chemical fertilizers available in all good garden centers, it may be better to opt for a natural alternative and moreover, homemade! Q

Whether for the sake of the environment or for economic reasons, homemade fertilizers offer several advantages. Here we present you some recipes to make your natural fertilizer.

Our tips for making a 100% natural fertilizer:

1. Natural fertilizers made from domestic waste

The simplest natural fertilizers come from your household waste. Here are some of these household wastes that you most likely have on hand, and how to use them as a natural fertilizer for your plants or vegetable garden:

Coffee Marc: Make it a habit every morning to keep the coffee grounds in a jar. This powder is an excellent source of phosphorus and nitrogen, two essential ingredients for keeping your green indoor plants and lettuce in the kitchen garden healthy. Incorporate regularly to the soil of your plants. On the other hand, avoid applying it during the flowering period, because nitrogen promotes leaf growth at the expense of flowers.

Tea bags: Make a second infusion with your used tea bags, which you will add afterward to the water of irrigation of your plants. Tea residues contain carbohydrate, an element that promotes beautiful flowering.

Egg Shells: After cooking, wash and dry eggshells thoroughly before crushing. You can then apply it to the soil of your plants, providing them with the calcium, magnesium, and potassium they need.

Banana peels: Another excellent source of potassium. Simply cut into small pieces and add them to the potting soil of your plants, or make an infusion that you add to the water.

Ashes of wood: If you are lucky enough to have a home at home, keep ashes from the wood you burned. Indeed, wood ash makes an excellent natural fertilizer for the lawn and vegetable garden. You only have to apply a thin layer on the lawn or the garden soil, and rain and watering will be responsible for incorporating this natural fertilizer to the roots.

2. Nettle manure as fertilizer for the vegetable garden

Although considered by many to be an undesirable plant, nettle can be very useful in the garden for feeding plants. Just make a decoction, or purine, leaving the plant macerate for a few days in a bucket of water.

Subsequently, dilute this manure with water, and apply it to the base of your fruit trees, garden or flower garden.

3. Make your own compost

If you have a garden place to build a home composter, this is the best way to make your natural fertilizer. You can incorporate your green gardening waste and some of your household waste.

Then you let everything break down for a few months, stirring regularly with a fork. Once well degraded, you will only have to apply to the base of your plants, the kitchen garden, etc.

4. Dried seaweed

You do not stay too far from the sea? Take your chance, and on your next stroll, take the opportunity to pick green algae. Then put them in heaps at the bottom of the garden, to avoid being bothered by the smell they release, and let them dry for a few days. You will only have to spread them to the vegetable garden to feed your plants with vegetables or fruits.

5. The decoction of comfrey

Following the same principle as nettle manure, make a decoction of comfrey leaves to make it a natural fertilizer for plants. You can then dilute it with water to feed and encourage the flowering of your ornamental plants.

6. Other natural plant-based fertilizers

Many ornamental or vegetable plants can be fed by their own waste. For example, greedy tomatoes can be used in a decoction and then serve as a natural fertilizer for the garden, once diluted with water spray. Infuse 80 grams in 1 liter of water for 4 or 5 days. Then filter and add this decoction to 10 liters of water.

If you grow geraniums in your flower boxes or in the garden, know that you can also use the stems to make a natural fertilizer. When pruning your geraniums, make a habit of storing the stalks that you will macerate for a few weeks in water.

7. Bird’s feathers as a natural fertilizer

If you have access to a poultry farm or other type of bird, collect their feathers to make a natural fertilizer in the form of juice. Just use about 2 good handfuls of feathers that you let macerate a few days in 8 liters of water. Make sure to put some weight to keep them submerged under water. No need to dilute before watering your vegetable garden with this feather juice.

8. Epsom salt as a natural fertilizer

Excellent source of magnesium and sulfur, Epsom salt can be used as a natural fertilizer for tomatoes and roses. Add 1 tablespoon of Epsom salt to 4 liters of water. Dilute well, and water your tomato plants and rose bushes, or any other plant whose foliage seems bland, with this liquid.

9. The cooking water of your vegetables

Did you know that you can use the cooking water of your vegetables to make it a natural fertilizer for your plants? Rich in nutrients that your plants need, the cooking water of vegetables can be applied once cooled, without dilution, directly on the potting soil of your plants.