You may not think of your kitchen as a potential garden, but the fact is that it’s full of plant food and exactly the right kind of plant food. Your kitchen has lots of fruits and vegetables, which are packed with nutrients and the perfect type of food for your garden plants. In this article, you will learn how to fertilize your garden to make it grow faster and stronger by using your scraps as fertilizer.
Now, you might be thinking that throwing away food scraps is bad. Well, yes, it is. In general, you should avoid throwing away any food scraps because doing so makes more waste and pollutes the earth.
However, if you are going to throw them away anyway, there’s no reason not to put them to good use first by fertilizing your garden with them first instead of throwing them in the trash.
Why Food Scraps Are Good Fertilizer?
You might be wondering why your food scraps are so special. After all, humans have been eating fruits and vegetables for centuries, and there are still plenty of plants around. So, why not use the scraps from your meals to fertilize your plants alone?
The answer is that these scraps are special because they are exactly what your plants need. They are a perfect balance of nutrients that your plants need to be healthy and happy. Plants need nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium (N-P-K) to grow. Most plants need a lot of N because that’s the chemical that helps them grow leaves and stems, and some need a lot of P to grow their roots strong. Plants also need a lot of K to make sure their N and P get to where they need to go.
When you throw away your food scraps, they break down into their basic chemical components, like N-P-K. That means that your food scraps are already the right shape, size, and chemical make-up to feed your plants, with no extra processing necessary. The only problem is that your scraps need to be in the soil to do any good.
How to Use Food Scraps as Fertilizer?
Since food scraps are already fertilizing agents, the only thing you need to do is throw them in your garden soil, and they will do the rest. If you want to maximize the effect of your scraps, you can add them to your soil, and your plants will get both the nutrients and the food that is in your scraps. To get the most out of your scraps, you want to make sure that they are broken down enough that your plants can access the nutrients inside. You can do this by adding a few extra things to your scraps, like manure or compost. Plants prefer their nutrients to be in a slightly less available form because it takes them longer to access them, making them last longer.
If you want to maximize the effectiveness of your scraps, you can also be strategic about where you put them. Plants have specific root systems that help them access different types of nutrients. Your roots go down deep to access potassium and phosphorus, while the stems and leaves get nitrogen from the air above ground. That means that you should put your scraps where they will do the most good.
If your plants are struggling to grow leaves and stems, put your scraps in a pile right next to the plants, but if they are struggling to grow roots, put them a few inches away.
What You Should Be Using
The key to using food scraps as fertilizer is that you need to know exactly what your plants need and then be sure to give it to them. There are certain plants that you can fertilize with just about anything, like broad beans, which don’t need very specific fertilizers.
However, if you want to grow specific plants, like tomatoes or peppers, you should know exactly what they need and give it to them. You can find out what your plants need by looking online, or you can talk to your local gardening store. Be sure to check if your soil type is different, as some plants prefer sandy soil, others prefer clay soil, and some prefer both. Knowing what your plants need is important because if you give them the wrong things, it can damage or even kill them.
Generally, you can use your food scraps as fertilizer as long as they don’t contain any meat or dairy products.
Vegetable Food Scraps
Many vegetables are good fertilizer, including peppers, carrots, and lettuce. You can use the scraps from any vegetables, including onions and potatoes, but try to avoid the ones that have too much water in them, like melons, tomatoes, and pumpkins. Some vegetables are better for sandy soils, like carrots, while others are better for clay soils, like pumpkins. Either way, all vegetables are good fertilizer, so if you don’t know what your soil type is, you can use any vegetable scraps as fertilizer. Some vegetables are better fertilizers than others, though.
For example, lettuce is an excellent fertilizer, while beans are not very good at all. You can use whatever vegetables you have, though, and they will provide your plants with nutrients.
Fruit Food Scraps
Most fruits are good fertilizer, but avocados, bananas, and coconuts are too fatty to be used as fertilizer. Some fruits are better for sandy soils, like peaches, while others are better for clay soils, like blueberries.
Like vegetables, you can use whatever fruit scraps you have, but some are better than others. For example, apples are an excellent fertilizer, while strawberries are not very good at all. You can use whatever fruits you have, though, and they will provide your plants with nutrients.
Egg and Dairy Food Scraps
Eggs and dairy are great fertilizers, but you should be careful not to put them on plants that you want to eat. Some people like to compost eggs and dairy, while others like to use them as a fertilizer. You can use whatever egg and dairy scraps you have as fertilizer, but be careful of rotten eggs or dairy that is too old. You should only use these scraps on plants that you don’t eat, like trees or flowers.
Meat Food Scraps
Meat scraps are one of the best fertilizers that you can use, but you should be careful to avoid rotten meat because it can damage your plants. You can use whatever meat scraps you have, but it’s best to avoid rotten flesh. You can use meat scraps as fertilizer for both sandy and clay soils.
Conclusion
Your kitchen is a garden, and your food scraps can be fertilizer. Any fruit, vegetable, or meat scraps that you have can be fertilizer for your garden. You can use these scraps to fertilize both sandy and clay soils. Just make sure that you don’t use any dairy or egg scraps on plants you want to eat, and use only fresh scraps. If you want your garden to grow faster and stronger, use your food scraps as fertilizer.
