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When it comes to organic gardening, it is suggested you
fertilize your soil at least two times per year. By
fertilizing the soil, you are ensuring the soil gets
the added nutrients it needs to allow your
organic garden to flourish. What makes organic fertilizer
different from regular fertilizer is the lack of man-made chemicals used
to produce it.
Types
of available organic fertilizer:
Organic
animal based fertilizer
To sum up what this fertilizer is composed of can be reduced
to one word: Manure. This type of organic fertilizer is
usually comprised of any one of the following: Cow manure,
horse manure, chicken manure, bat excrement, and even rabbit
manure. Organic animal fertilizer should be decomposed or
aged; prior to mixing it with the soil for your organic garden.
This should be done in order to eliminate the dangerous
bacteria, such as the infamous E. coli, or other harmful
pathogens.
Once the manure has been properly broken down through
decomposition, you can apply it as a liquid or solid form to
your organic garden. It is important that the organic
animal manure is blended completely and wholly into the soil.
For optimal results, it is advised you blend your organic animal
fertilizer with your soil at least 3 weeks in advance to
planting your organic garden. This will allow it to fully
enrich the soil and eliminate the bad odor you would have to
endure while gardening.
Organic
plant based fertilizer
The most common ingredients used for this type of fertilizer
are comprised of the following: Seaweed, worm castings, compost,
and what is commonly referred to as “green manure.” Most of
the time, organic plant fertilizers are also comprised of kelp
and seaweed. Scientific research has discovered that
seaweed is extremely beneficial as an organic fertilizer.
Seaweed is full of nutrients such as copper, zinc, and
manganese. These nutrients are heavily responsible for
maximum growth; because they provide soil with micro nutrients.
These micro nutrients are what is responsible for giving your
organic garden maximum growth.
You can also use worm casings, also known as worm composting,
to fertilize your organic garden. This type of fertilizer
is easily made or can be bought from an organic garden supply
store. To make your own worm casing fertilizer, you need to
begin with the correct type of worms. You can obtain these
worms from an organic garden supply store.
You will also need a covered tub. Lastly, you will need
some lightly moistened vegetable matter. In fact, you can
even use old newspapers instead. The beauty of this method
of fertilization is the simplicity and the lack of effort.
The worms are your employees and do all the work for you for,
and they do the work for free. If that’s not enough to
convince you to try this organic method of fertilization,
consider this; the organic fertilizer you get is nutrient dense
and you get it for virtually no cost.
“Green manure” is another form of organic fertilizer you
can use. Green manure is a cover crop which is grown,
chopped down, and mixed into the soil. It then decomposes into
the dirt. This process enriches the soil because the
decomposing vegetable matter replenishes the soil with
nutrients. One such cover crop you can use is soybeans.
The cover crop has to be, what is referred to as, a “nitrogen
fixing crop.”
As
you can see, there are a variety of ways to further enrich your
soil organically. It’s highly suggested you use any one
of the above mentioned to ensure you have a bountiful, organic
garden.
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