Gardening – The Poo Poo on Non-Commercial Fertilizers
The Mittleider Method is commonly hailed as a wonderful solution for vegetable gardeners. Some even tout the results as superior to organic gardening. Its main benefit is that it doesn’t use pesticides and herbicides, and you know exactly what goes into it.
Some, however, doubt its sustainability. They believe a healthy, productive garden requires commercial fertilizers to thrive, which is simply not correct.
You can use alternative fertilizers anywhere given the easy availability of natural mineral fertilizers online from many resources, including .
If you’re up for additional creativity, an alternative fertilizing strategy involves preparing “manure tea.” (It’s for your plants, not break time…)
You can probably guess exactly how the process begins – gathering poop. You’ll need a 55-gallon barrel, a burlap bag, water and manure to make this fertilizer. That’s it. Ok, maybe also a clothespin for your nose.
1. Start Gathering
The first thing you’ll do is locate cow or horse manure and place it in the burlap bag. If you use chicken or turkey excrement, you don’t need to use as much (but you’ll probably be gathering longer).
2. Make the Tea
After you have the manure gathered up, put it into your 55-gallon barrel and let it soak for a day. Cover it to keep out insects.
3. Pour the Tea
When you water your plants the next day, your manure tea will be ready for you to use. Just apply it to your plants in place of water.
4. Spread the Manure
The manure is a great way to improve your garden’s grade, so just go ahead and dump it over the ground.
You don’t want your crops to be crowded too closely together because they’ll have to compete against each other just to get nutrients. Spread them out a bit.
This process is great for smaller gardens because it’s pretty simple to carry out. It’s also adaptable, and you can substitute human waste and kitchen scraps for the manure. Follow the same steps as described above.
Watch your herbs, tomatoes, vegetables and berries produce record yields. Manure tea really hits the spot. It demonstrates that no commercial fertilizer is necessary to grow strong, healthy crops, and you really don’t need the Mittleider Method either. Just gather cow paddies. It may be repulsive, but you crops will flourish from it.
And when you’re finished, if you have extra manure tea on hand, give it away to another gardener. Unlike wine, this is not a product that while sitting stagnant, uh, improves with age.
