It's never too early to be thinking about what you need for your lawn or garden and how to care for them to get the best possible results. So what are fertilizers? Let's find out!
Fertilizer is any material that supplies at least one essential nutrient to plants. Fertilizers typically provide: Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium, Calcium, Magnesium, Sulfur, Boron, Chlorine, Copper, Iron, Manganese, Molybdenum, and Zinc. When classifying fertilizers there are two main categories: inorganic (or non-organic) or organic. Inorganic fertilizers are derived from non-living material, are man-made and have chemicals. Inorganic fertilizers are often called commercial fertilizers. Organic fertilizers (aka natural fertilizers) are derived from living or once living material. Organic fertilizers are naturally occurring fertilizers (e.g. compost, manure), that's why they are sometimes called natural fertilizers. Naturally occurring organic fertilizers include manure, slurry, worm castings, peat, seaweed, humic acid, and guano. Processed organic fertilizer can include compost, bloodmeal, bone meal, humic acid, amino acids, and seaweed extracts. Other examples are natural enzyme digested proteins, fish meal, and feather meal.
One of the disadvantages of inorganic fertilizers are they are environmentally costly. It's a known fact that inorganic fertilizers, with all their chemicals, are not good for the earth. Runoff from inorganic gardens, lawns, etc. can cause biological dead zones in streams and rivers. What are the advantages of using organic fertilizer over inorganic fertilizers? There are many!! Organic fertilizers slightly reduce carbon emissions in organic gardens, lawns, etc.
Vegetable organic gardening & why the First Family has an organic garden
