How to Fertilize Vegetable Gardens Without Chemicals

Fertilize without chemicals for a healthy garden crop.

You may think eating fresh produce from your vegetable garden provides a healthy alternative to store-bought until you factor in using chemical fertilizers. Although washing vegetables from the garden may remove most of the chemical residue, it may not remove it all. Fertilizing your garden in the fall and spring, and adding certain nutrients as your crops grow, provides the necessary ingredients for an organic method of gardening.

Things You'll Need

• Leaf rake
• Cow or horse manure
• Fish emulsion
• Garden rake or tiller
• Coffee grounds
• Bone meal

Instructions

1. Rake grass clippings and leaves into a pile near a just-tilled garden in the fall. If you have a grass catcher, deposit the clippings into the pile. Level the pile to 2 to 3 inches in height so the sun dries out any moisture in the organic material. Move the grass clippings and leaves into the garden space after drying for two hours.

2. Spread cow or horse manure on top of the leaves and grass clippings. Distribute it evenly over the garden with a garden rake. Use a tiller or hoe to deposit the organic fertilizer into the soil. The manure provides nitrogen into the soil. Fertilizing with grass clippings, leaves and manure in the fall before next spring's garden allows the nutrients time to incorporate into the soil and removes the risk of E.coli contamination from the manure by giving it time to age properly.

3. Spread fish emulsion over the entire garden during the spring. Work the organic material into the ground with a garden rake. Fish emulsion, a dried compound made from fish waste, helps break down manure fertilizer while adding nitrogen to the soil.

4. Scatter cold coffee grounds around growing pepper or tomato plants. Use your fingers or a small spade to push the grounds into the soil around the plants. Sprinkle the grounds along green bean plants, and use a hoe to work them into the soil. The coffee grounds reduce the number of snails or slugs in a garden and provide phosphorus, magnesium, nitrogen and potassium.

5. Strew bone meal around plants and up and down rows. Work the bone meal into the soil with a garden rake. Bone meal provides nutrients such as phosphorus and potassium to plants that they may not receive from the soil.

References

• Green Living Tips; Natural Fertilizer; October 2007
• Mother Earth News; A Better Way to Fertilize Your Garden: Homemade Organic Fertilizer; Steve Solomon; June/July 2006
• Colorado State; Preventing E. coli From Garden to Plate; J.G. Davis and P. Kendall; April 2005
• Mama's Health: Used Coffee Grounds and Your Garden
• Sunset: The Starbucks Coffee Compost Test