Do you buy fertilizers or make your own compost manure?

[Rainman]

This sure depends on where you live but town folk who live in the suburbs forget that they can use kitchen waste to make compost. It's not only better in making your garden more fertile but you can avoid any problems that may arise from using fertilizers over a long period of time.

Question is, do you prefer fertilizer over compost? If you do, why?

 

[firelily99]

When I can I try to compost. If I can't I stick with organic fertilizers; I grow organically whenever possible and I can really taste the difference. I have a friend who raises goats and they are wonderful fertilizer makers!

 

[Dora M]

I rarely buy fertilizers. I mainly use cow manure and mulch for my plants. My food scraps are in high demand by the wallabies and kangaroos in my backyard, so I feel bad composting them when there is a hungry mouth just waiting underneath my window, especially during times of drought and bush fires, when times are lean for the wildlife.
From time to time I buy a bag of blood and bone, but that's about as far as it goes with me buying fertilizers.

 

[claudine]

This is a good question! I make my own compost, because I have a lot of kitchen waste. I use it only in my garden though. For my indoor roses, I buy a special fertilizer. I want to be 100% sure that they get all necessary nutrients. So far, it works great. Most of my dear miniatures grow really fast and bloom often.

 

[Meowmie]

I compost everything that can be as long as it's been grown organically. No Pesticides or GMO's for me.

Living in a suburb, I do buy a bag of well composted cow manure each season to mix with what I compost. Can't have chickens or cows in my yard. So picky!!!

 

[headfullofbees]

I'm fortunate enough to have access to a free supply of horse manure, I make actively-aerated compost tea, seaweed extract, and use volcanic rock dust, but I still also use a little fish, blood and bone, as I want to get the fertiliser balance just right.

 

[Trellum]

I prefer compost over fertilizers, because I just don't feel comfortable handling fertilizers anymore... not knowing I could be exposing my self and everyone in the house to carcinogens. I won't risk it. I have never tried making my own compost, but I definitely want to learn how to in the future

 

[Hedonologist]

I've started composting recently and I'm actually pretty pleased with the results. Previously I've bought compost and although it wasn't very expensive. It's still nice to be able to supply your own. It's certainly very rewarding (as if the vegetables weren't rewarding enough!)

 

[forextraspecialstuff]

I prefer compost over fertilizers for health purposes. Unfortunately I haven't gone straight compost yet, I garden with my Mom at her house in a city and while we have a decent size garden there isn't really the space for a compost pile. Has anyone had success making their own compost manure in relatively tight quarters? I may be off base with my understanding of the concept because when I was growing up my grandfather made his own compost manure and he had a HUGE garden, so I always associate the compost with a lot of space.

 

[Chuck]

This sure depends on where you live but town folk who live in the suburbs forget that they can use kitchen waste to make compost. It's not only better in making your garden more fertile but you can avoid any problems that may arise from using fertilizers over a long period of time.

Question is, do you prefer fertilizer over compost? If you do, why?

I prefer both. Compost by itself doesn't have enough nutrients but it provides organic matter that breaks down over time allowing you to use less and less fertilizer,. Compost doesn't provide much nitrogen unless you are basing your compost on manure. I use a lot more compost than fertilizer and my compost is made from kitchen wastes and from the plants removed from the garden at the end of the season. The only fertilizers I use are certified organic. NO CHEMICALS. Chemical fertilizers over time burn out the organic matter in the soil leaving salts. My garden is now 11 years old and it has never seen any type of chemical fertilizer, chemical pesticide or chemical herbicide and I use very little fertilizer considering the size that it is.

 

[Ruth B]

I have two vertical worm bins, I have used these twice in gardening. They come in trays and stack, with holes for the worms to go thru the various levels. It also has a drain spout, so I can also just drain water off and use the 'tea'. I use organic peat moss. That has even 'beefed' up PetSmart worms. I did order worms from some company up north, but they didn't make it. What made it was just pure old puny worms from PetSmart. You could even do it without a worm bin, just go get some worms and they will help.

 

[headfullofbees]

As far as I'm concerned, compost and fertilisers are two different things.
Compost is, at its basic definition, no more than a growing medium.
It may contain nutrients and trace elements, but that is a fortuitous extra.
"Fertiliser" has become a pejorative term, due to the petro-chemical type, which may help short-term, but aren't nice in the long run, but to me "fertiliser" means anything which makes the growing medium more fertile, and that includes all the organic and wholesome additives to our growing medium.

I use seaweed, wood ash, horse manure, and compost tea, all of which I make myself, and all of which I regard as fertilisers, but as I cannot make enough for my needs, I tend to supplement them with ORGANIC fish, blood and bone, and chicken manure, and volcanic rockdust for remineralisation.

That is not to deny the value of compost.
On its own in pots, or in conjuction with the soil, it provides an excellent home for my plants, and prevents the soil, and its beneficial microbial community, from becoming depleted with continual use, and, in fact, enriches it.

 

[InvasiveCreeper]

Question is, do you prefer fertilizer over compost? If you do, why?

Compost is fertilizer. If one is unable to create it, you can still buy it.

There is no need to use synthetic fertilizers and poison your soil.

 

[sunflowerpower]

We've always had two compost bins at the back of our garden, and while we sometimes supplement with store bought blood or bone meal we typically use our own compost.
We're also lucky enough to share our property with a small farm, and they provide us with manure and also allow us to dip into their compost piles, which are ridiculously rich with everything off the farm.
I've grown up always throwing kitchen scraps in the compost bin and then using it to garden later, and it was so weird when I visited my boyfriend in the city for the first time, because compost gets collected weekly there with the garbage.
I was so confused that no one wanted to keep their compost!
My boyfriend and his family don't really garden and I think they thought I was crazy, but it's just not as common in some places I guess.

 

[Mint]

I use chicken waste as manure for my garden I shun using fertilizer and like to use animal waste instead. No trouble as I have neighbors who are willing to share manure with me. They breed rabits.