How to Fertilize Garden Soil

The condition of your garden soil has the biggest bearing on how well your plants will grow. Even if you are consistent with watering, weeding and pruning, if your garden soil isn't particularly fertile then your plants' growth will be stunted. The best way to get bigger, fuller plants in your garden is to fertilize the soil.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Garden
• Water
• Fertilizer

1. Use compost to fertilize your garden soil. Compost is organic material mixed with soil. You can spade compost directly into the soil once it is fully developed (or straight out of the bag if bought).

2. Fertilize your soil with a standard soil fertilizer purchased from a home and garden shop. Look for a mixture that has a good ratio of nitrogen to phosphorus and potash. These three compounds are among the most important for plant development (nitrogen especially).

3. Use manure in your garden. Manure has an incredible amount of nutrients in it (although a lower nitrogen content than other fertilizers). Manure works particularly well because of the bacteria in it: the bacteria helps to both store and generate nutrients as it settles into the soil.

4. Plant "cover crops" in your garden. A cover crop is a plant like alfalfa or even moss. These kinds of low growing, low volume plants can then be tilled into the soil to increase their fertility. Even if you leave them alone they will dramatically improve soil quality (but take up space in your garden).

5. Use lime or sulfur to adjust the acidity of your soil. Use smaller amounts of each at first to see if you notice improvement in your garden. Adjusting the pH level of your soil can have a profound effect on the growth of plants in your garden.

Tips & Warnings

• Remove weeds from your soil before you introduce fertilizer. Weeding your soil prevents unwanted plants from competing for the nutrients you are trying to introduce. You'll also want to check back on the soil and garden from time to time to ensure new weeds haven't grown.
• While fertilizing your soil is an important step in helping improve your garden, it is possible to over-fertilize. Fertilizers absorb the moisture in the soil, and if too much is introduced it can actually prevent the roots from getting all of the nutrients they need. Always carefully read the instructions of your fertilizer to know exactly how much to introduce per square foot.