Spring-Planting Special Organic fertilizer

If you really want to know what kind of organic fertilizer you're putting on your flower and vegetable gardens, quit buying prebagged mixes. Make your own homemade fertilizer and you won't have to wonder about those "extra" ingredients that tend to show up in commercial fertilizers. This mix will give you the "grow power" of a 25-pound bag of 5-10—10 fertilizer—that's 5 percent nitrogen, 10 percent phosphorus, and 10 percent potassium—with no unnecessary additives.

Ingredients and Supplies

17 pounds cottonseed meal

8 pounds colloidal phosphate

45 pounds granite dust Respirator Gloves Safety goggles

Large wheelbarrow or plastic drop cloth Shovel

Directions

1. Find out what your garden needs before you apply fertil izer. Send a soil sample to a testing lab and ask them for organic recommendations. (See "Organic Soil Testing" on page 57 for labs that offer this service.)

2. Put on the respirator (a more effective form of dust mask), gloves, and goggles, then place all the ingredients in the wheelbarrow or on the drop cloth and mix with the shovel.

3. Before planting in spring, spread the fertilizer over the garden area—the amount you'll need to use depends on your soil test. (Wear gloves, goggles, and a respirator when you work.) Hoe or rake the fertilizer into the top 4 to 6 inches of soil.

Yield: The equivalent of 25 pounds of 5-10-10 commercial organic fertilizer