How to Fertilize a Garden Cheaply

By eHow Home & Garden Editor

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If you're growing a garden, you must make sure the plants are well fed. There are plenty of commercial fertilizers on the market, but they can be expensive, and you may want to be more selective about what you add to your soil. There are alternatives if you're looking for a cheap fertilizer for your garden.

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Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Step1

Make your own compost from kitchen scraps, lawn clippings, leaves and shredded tree limbs. There are many designs for composters, which range from quite simple to highly expensive. The RRFB website includes suggestions for making your own with little expense.

Step2

Bury your organic waste in your garden if you don't want to build a compost pile or if your community doesn't allow one.

Step3

Check with your city or county to see if they offer free compost. They often have an area where they dump their tree trimming mulch and are more than happy for you to come and get it free. Even if there is a small fee for loading, it's well worth it.

Step4

Go for the cheaper bags of compost in your garden supply store. Usually, the only difference in these and the more expensive brands is the texture. The cheap brands may be a little lumpier, but you can work them into the soil, and they'll serve the same purpose of adding nutrients and amending the soil.

Step5

Find a source for free manure. Fresh manure can burn your plants, so it should compost for about a year before you add it to your garden. Many times, your supplier has an old pile and a fresh pile, so go for the older one. Your neighbors and your garden will thank you for that. Manure can also have weed seeds in it, so you may have some extra weeding to do.

Step6

Concoct your own liquid fertilizer. You can find many recipes for making fertilizer, which use items such as beer, ammonia and other household products. If you decide to use some of the recipes, do your research and find some legitimate and proven formulas, or you may do more harm than good to your young plants.

Step7

Read the label if you decide to use some of the cheap chemical fertilizers. Look for a complete and balanced fertilizer that includes minor elements and micro nutrients. The ones with only a couple of elements may be cheaper, but aren't going to provide everything your garden needs.

Tips & Warnings

You may want to invest in a shredder to mince up your compost. The smaller your organic material is, the quicker it'll decompose.
Some good things to compost are leaves, pine needles, sawdust, wood ashes, shredded black ink newspaper, manure, coffee grounds, eggshells and all produce.
Avoid putting meats, fats, oils, dairy products, dog or cat waste, treated wood chips and colored newsprint into your compost.