I Have Not Bought a Bag of Fertilizer in Twenty Years, Here Is Why

The man who buys his soil is renting it. The man who feeds his soil owns it. That is what my granddad told me when I was a boy with dirt under my nails, and he was right. Half of what is in that costly bag from the store is just salt and filler that washes out with the first hard rain. In this one I show you the old ways we fed the ground for nothing — kitchen scraps, dead leaves, coffee grounds, and the good sense to know the soil is alive and hungry just like we are. Seven ways, and not one of them costs a single dollar. #Gardening #OldWalt #GardenAlmanac ___________________ WHAT WE COVER IN THIS ONE 1. Trench feeding — bury your scraps deep to feed the worms over the months 2. The buried egg myth — skip it, and give your tomatoes steady water for blossom end rot instead 3. Compost tea — a quick brew for when your plants are hungry today and cannot wait 4. Bread for worms — buried deep, it pulls earthworms fast (the riskiest trick, done right) 5. Leaf mold — cage your fall leaves into the finest soil softener there is 6. Hot composting — build a big pile right and make black gold in weeks 7. Mineral patches — coffee, wood ash, fine eggshell, and well aged manure for what the ground lacks ___________________ THE OLD WAY, SAID PLAIN The garden store does not sell you fertilizer. It sells you the worry. Almost everything your ground needs is already passing through your hands every day. I tell you the why behind every method, and I am honest about the tall tales too — the buried whole egg, the eighteen day compost, the myth that coffee grounds sour your soil. ___________________ SIT WITH ME A SPELL If sitting out here on the porch with an old farmer was worth your time, go on and subscribe so you do not miss the next one. And tell me down below which of these ways you had never heard of, and which one you will try first in your own beds this week. I read them all, and I have learned as much from you good folks as you ever learned from me. ___________________ MORE FROM THE PORCH Next time I show you the old way we kept the garden watered through a hot Virginia summer without ever touching the spigot — the way my granddad caught and held every drop of rain. #SoilHealth #Composting #OrganicGardening #LeafMold #CompostTea #NoDig #VegetableGarden #FrugalGardening #HomesteadWisdom #ShenandoahValley #OldFarmerWays #FeedYourSoil