Feeding your soil the essential nutrients it needs is crucial for having a happy and healthy garden. Without them, the garden soil won’t produce thriving plants, and that’s the last thing you want.
But providing your garden plants with the nutrients they need can get expensive; the good news is below; we’d like to discuss how to feed your garden without the cost.
Ways to Feed Your Garden For Free
Getting your soil right is one of the most critical steps in gardening. If you don’t do this, you won’t achieve plant growth.
But getting the soil ready can seem more work than it is; first, you must pick suitable fertilizers and compost. However, once you do, you’ve met the hefty price, and you may wonder how you’re supposed to purchase these garden products regularly.
It’s just not manageable for someone on a budget, especially for plants that are heavy feeders. The good news is there is a way around it, and that’s Feeding Your garden For Free.
That might sound impossible, but the truth is it’s not. There are many easy ways to feed your garden and get healthy plants at no cost.
All you have to do is make homemade plant food from items you already have in your home, which means no more wasting money on store-bought fertilizers and chemical fertilizers.
Today we’re talking about what everyday sources of organic matter you can use to Feed Your Garden For Free including your indoor and outdoor plants.
Let’s get to it.
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Banana Peels
Banana peels are a great organic fertilizer and source of calcium for your vegetable garden since calcium is a great way to help your plant roots grow.
Banana peels are also fantastic for adding magnesium to your plants. This is good because magnesium is beneficial for helping with preventing stunted plant growth.
If you’re willing to pay money, Epsom salts are also a great source of magnesium. Banana peels are also a good source of potassium. This is also helpful because, without potassium, your plants will be wilting.
The best part about using these materials is that they are super cheap, and you are also fighting food waste without spending a dime. But they’re not the only kitchen scraps that work as homemade fertilizers.
Coffee Grounds
Spent Coffee grounds are another great kitchen scrap that works wonders in the garden. It’s an especially great natural fertilizer for acid-loving plants. This is due to their acidic nature.
They also provide a good amount of nitrogen to your garden, making this an excellent substitute for chicken manure since that is also a source of nitrogen.
Used coffee grounds also add a good amount of calcium, magnesium, and iron to the soil. Iron is the element that provides oxygen to your plants and gives them their lush green color.
This food source is also known for attracting worms to the garden as are leafy greens, which are incredible for your garden soil and plants.
It’s also good to keep in mind that coffee grounds are unsuitable for low acidic soil.
Egg Shells
If you’re looking to keep slugs away and provide your plants with calcium, egg shells are what you need. They’re high in calcium carbonate, which is an excellent alternative to calcium carbonate liquid fertilizers or bone meal.
Calcium carbonate is crucial because it helps fight diseases such as powdery mildew, blossom end rot, and black spot mold.
So before you throw out those eggshells in the morning, collect them as well as vegetable scraps in a compost bin to later spread in your garden.
Wood Ash
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Wood ash is one of the most popular organic materials to use in your garden.
Wood ash has trace elements of magnesium, aluminum, and zinc, but the main reason wood ash is used is that it can be used to make alkaline soil.
This is especially good for:
- asparagus
- Brussels sprouts
- leeks
- cabbage
since they thrive in this type of soil.
Grass Clippings
Instead of going to a garden center to get synthetic fertilizers this growing season, save your grass clippings. Grass clippings are a great option and one of the best ways to save money and feed your garden.
This is due to them having a high nitrogen content, meaning you don’t have to stock up on a store-bought nitrogen fertilizer.
All you need to use for this form of organic gardening is a lawn mower, particularly one that catches the clippings.
Then all you need to do is mix the grass into the soil, and you’re ready to go, but you can also add it to your compost pile.
Keep in mind that adding some things straight into your garden aren’t the best if you have plants growing in the area at the time.
Some of these need time to break down to give back to the soil and while they breakdown they actually take away from the soil. So you wouldn’t want your plants to be fighting against them for nutrients.
Just be sure you know what things are good to use now and what things should be composted first.
There you go; now you know the best Ways To Feed Your Garden For Free. Which one surprised you? Let us know in the comments. We would love to hear from you.
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