Super food for roses

"Roses really respond to organic fertilizers," says Judy McKeon, chief horticulturist and rosarian for the Morris Arboretum of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. "We fertilize all of our roses with this organic blend in early spring and give repeat-bloomers a second application in early summer," she says. "They respond with fantastic foliage and flowers."

Ingredients and Supplies

2-gallon bucket 1 cup alfalfa meal 1 cup fish meal 1 cup greensand % cup bonemeal 1 cup gypsum Dust mask

Directions

1. Mix all ingredients together in the bucket. Wear a dust mask while you work.

2. Pull back mulch and work the mix gently into the soil.

3. Reapply mulch and water well.

Yield: 4,1/2 cups of natural rose food

Note: This formula makes enough fertilizer to feed 1 large rose bush or several small ones. If you prefer, you can triple or quadruple the recipe and store the extra rose tood in a sealed, labeled container in a dry, cool place.

In early spring, push back the mulch around your rose bushes and work organic fertilizer into the top inch of soil. Then remulch the soil and water well. Results—robust roses!

Fabulous Fertilizer Fix for Bulbs

Bulbs need more than bonemeal to do their best. Bonemeal does supply daffodils, tulips, and other bulbs with the phosphorus and calcium they crave, but this fertilizer mix offers more. To give your bulbs a more complete diet this fall, add nitrogen (from blood meal) and potash (from greensand or ashes) to your bulbs' bonemeal meal.

Ingredients and Supplies

2-3 pounds blood meal

2-3 pounds bonemeal

2-3 pounds greensand or wood ashes (use greensand if your soil's pH is near neutral, use wood ashes to raise the pH if your soil is acidic)

Dust mask or respirator

Cloves

Safety goggles

Bucket, washtub, or plastic drop cloth Shovel

Free Fertilizer Mix

If you have horses or cows—or access to a stable or farm—you can substitute dry manure for the Fabulous Fertilizer mix. (Store-bought manure will work as well.) Use 16 gallons of dry manure, or a Vi-inch layer per 100 square feet of bed. Reapply each spring.

Compost is another great free fertilizer option. Rather than making the Fabulous Fertilizer mix, you can apply 16 gallons (or a 1/4-inch layer) of compost per 100 square feet of bulb bed in fall and 2 pounds of blood meal in spring each year.

Directions

1. Put on a dust mask or respirator, gloves, and safety goggles (fertilizer materials are dusty), then mix all the ingredients in the bucket or washtub or on the drop cloth, stirring them together with a shovel.

2. Topdress established bulb beds with the mixture in early spring when the foliage starts to emerge from the ground. Broadcast the fertilizer over the soil surface without working it into the soil. Wear your dust mask or respirator, goggles, and gloves for this step, too. Digging around the emerging bulbs can damage roots, so let spring rains wash the fertilizer into the ground.

Yield: Enough fertilizer for 100 square feet

Variation: Substitute 2 pounds colloidal phosphate for the bonemeal. Colloidal phosphate breaks down gradually over about 5 years, so test your soil to see what it needs before fertilizing again.

Compost Is - His Plants' Cup of Tea

Malcolm Beck of San Antonio, Texas, knows compost. He is the author of The Secret Life of Compost, and he manufactures and sells up to 100,000 cubic yards of it every year. Malcolm believes that compost solubles (the materials that are released when you make the compost tea) are the best part of the pile. He says that these dissolved minerals, microbes, hormones, and other ingredients in compost tea feed the plants, act as a general tonic, and also discourage some pests and diseases. So he makes a simple but effective tea from compost and uses it to feed his plants regularly.

Ingredients and Supplies

5 - gallon (or larger) buchet

1 tablespoon molasses

Biostimulant (optional)

Directions

1. Fill the bucket 'A full with compost.

2. Fill the bucket to the top with water.

3. Add molasses and biostimulant (optional).

4. Allow the mixture to stand for 2 to 4 days.

5. Strain the mixture through a piece of old panty hose and dilute until the color of iced tea.

Yield: About 4 gallons (or more, depending on the size of the bucket) of compost tea

Fungus - Fighting Tea

Malcolm Beck says that there are many active ingredients in compost that can help control diseases and deter insect infestations, including many kinds of soil microbes. You can put his basic compost tea to work as a pest fighter, but for fungicidal use, allow the tea to sit for two weeks before using. Malcolm is even using compost tea as an ingredient in a new remedy for repelling imported fire ants.

Note: Apply as a soil drench or foliar (leaf) spray to seedlings, vegetables, and fast-growing plants once a week. Use once a month for slow-growing houseplants.

The Worms` Turn

Jay Mertz always makes room for earthworms at Rabbit Hill Farm in Corsicana, Texas, where he and his wife, Joanne, raise earthworms and sell castings, potting soil, and organically grown plants. He knows that earthworms not only aerate the soil to a depth of 6 feet and make minerals more available in the process, but each earthworm also produces rich fertile castings, or manure, and lots of it—up to its body weight each day! The castings contain several vital nutrients as well as an enzyme that increases the moisture holding capacity of the soil.

"Earthworm castings are the worlds best fertilizer," Jay claims. Castings contain all the nutrients plants need for a terrific start, and the additional Epsom salts in his formula provide magnesium for sweet, juicy tomatoes and melons.

Ingredients and Supplies

12 cups earthworm castings

1/4 cup Epsom salts

Plastic measuring cup or empty 8-ounce yogurt container

Directions

1. Put earthworm castings in a bucket or other container and add the Epsom salts. Mix well.

2. Put 1 cup of the mixture in the bottom ol each transplant hole as you plant tomatoes and melons.

Yield: 1214 cups of organic fertilizer mix

Your own Earthworm Farm

You can buy earthworm castings from a garden supply catalog. But it's more fun to build a worm composter to produce a free supply of castings. Earthworms make composting easy - even indoors! )ust use a small box to hold earthworms, soil, and kitchen waste. These polite houseguests will consume your kitchen food wastes and shredded newspapers and give you earthworm castings, the world's greatest fertilizer. All they ask for is a nice warm, dark bed and steady meals. To learn more about earthworms and worm bins, see pages 20-21.

Swiss Chard Cocktail

Did you go overboard on sowing Swiss chard? Or maybe you're looking for a fast-growing fertilizer source to fill in some empty garden space? You can solve your problems and satisfy your plants' hunger by serving them Swiss chard tea for a quick pick-me-up. Fantastic in salads, stir-fries or just steamed, Swiss chard is great for plants, too. "A happy hour for sad-looking plants" is how Dominique Inge, a self-described "passionate gardener," characterizes her recipe. She uses it regularly on the plants in her organic gardens in Granbury, Texas.

Ingredients and Supplies
2 cups red or green Swiss chard leaves,
coarsely chopped Blender
Cheesecloth or colander

Directions
1. Place the chopped leaves in the blender.
2. Add enough hot water to fill the blender jar and blend thoroughly.
3. Strain the mixture through cheesecloth or a colander and apply the cooked leaves around the base of plants.
4. After the liquid cools, use it as a soil drench around plants.

Yield: About 8 cups of Swiss chard tea
Note: Swiss chard leaves that are longer than 10 inches are best added to the compost pile or used in this tonic tea. You can also use the liquid that's left after cooking Swiss chard in the same way.

Variation: If all of your chard winds up on the dinner table, you can substitute comfrey in this recipe. Its leaves are high in calcium, phosphorus, potassium, trace minerals, and vitamins А, В-12, and C.

Give your Plants a Weed Feed

If you can't beat 'em, feed with 'em. That could be the motto of Neil Strickland of Raymond, Mississippi. Neil fertilizes his entire vegetable garden and 3-acre orchard exclusively with a homemade weed tea. Just like cover crops, weeds contain traces of the "big three" nutrients: nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. "And fast-growing weeds have many growth hormones and trace minerals," Neil says. He uses whatever is on hand for his brew, including horsetail (Ecjuisetum arvense), chickweed, comfrey, nettles, and even willow branches and grass clippings. "If you can use only one plant, make it willow branches," he says, "because they contain many growth hormones that are especially beneficial for transplants."

Ingredients and Supplies

55-gallon drum or several 5-gallon buckets

Silica-rich plants, like s t i n g i n g or false

nettles, or horsetail

Any type of will o w branch (watersprouts are especially good)

Green matter, such as fresh lawn c l i p pings, chickweed , and comfrey

Rainwater or chlorine-free water

Directions

1. C o a r s e l y c h o p some silica-rich plants, w i l l o w , and green matter, and fill the drum or buckets % to 'Л full of plant material.

2. Fill the d r um or buckets w i t h rainwater or chlorine-free water. It's important to use water that hasn't been c h l o r i n a t e d , because chlorine may kill the microbes that break down the plant matter.

3. Let the mixture stand in the sun for several days (preferably not too close to the house—this is a pretty fragrant fertilizer!).

4. Pour or drain the liquid off the top into a separate container.

5. To use, mix 1 quart of the fertilizer liquid in 5 gallons of water. Spray on plant leaves as a foliar fertilizer, or use as a soil drench

for vegetables, fruit trees, and ornamentals. (Neil often uses the liquid full strength on established plants and has not experienced any burning.)

Yield: About 30 gallons of nutrient tea

Note: Add more water and new weed material to the drum or buckets as you use the fertilizer and you'll have a continuous source of plant food. "It's like sourdough starter," explains Neil's friend, Kathleen Chapman, also of Raymond, Mississippi. "You have to keep it going by continuing to add fresh plants and more water. The sludge that remains in the bottom of the container contains microbes that keep the fertilizer cooking." Kathleen says that this weed tea keeps her flower and herb gardens lush and green all season long.

Plant Help from Kelp

Looking for the perfect all-purpose food for your perennials, herbs, shrubs, roses, and fruit trees? Phil Boise of Goleta, California, has concocted an organic mix that keeps his plants healthy and productive all year. Phil and his wife, Ellen McLaughlin, sell organically grown plants, organic pest controls, fertilizers, and seeds at Island Seed and Feed in Goleta. "Don't skimp on the kelp," Phil says. He uses only coldwater harvested kelp. "It has a lower salt content and a better nutrient, hormone, and mineral percentage." He's found that kelp also helps to improve the pest and disease resistance of his plants.

Ingredients and Supplies
1 part kelpmeal
2 parts alfalfa meal
4 parts any combination cottonseed meal, fish meal, and/or soybean mea
1 part rock phosphate
Dust mask
Gloves
Safety goggles

Directions
1. Mix all ingredients thoroughlywhile wearing a dust mask, gloves, and safety goggles.
2. Use up to 3 cups for each mature rosebush, perennial, or shrub. For annuals and herbs, use only up to I|A cups. For midsize fruit trees, you can apply up to 6 cups.
3. Apply 2 or 3 times a year.

Recycled plastic containers like yogurt cups make perfect scoops for measuring fertilizer ingredients in "parts." When mixing ertilizers, wear gloves and a dust mask to protect your skin and to avoid inhaling fine dust particles.