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Items:

• A bag of organic dirt from Garden Center
• A few containers to use for planting like a few coffee cans, egg cartons, an OJ carton, a milk carton
• A large plastic container with top
• Used coffee grinds (or tea, without the bag)
• A few egg shells crushed
• Potato peels
• Some banana peels (and maybe a rotten banana or two)

So, this is how I make basic organically fertilized soil inexpensively. I pour the dirt in a large container. I have friends that use trash cans or the large Tupperware containers. Also, some towns in my area give their residents compost bags. Or, you can buy (if you want to spend a few extra bucks) a composting bag from your local garden center. 

Then I add the used coffee grinds, the crushed egg shells, the banana peels and potato peels then use my hands and mix the dirt. Finally, I would cover the large container with the top. But, you have to remember that it needs a bit of air and water to help the materials break down. And, on occasion you should mix it.

I use coffee grinds, banana peels and egg shells because I drink coffee every morning, my daughter loves bananas and we use eggs here and there. So, I have those things laying around. But, if you are a tea drinker you can use the excess tea (sans the bag). The coffee grinds give the soil nitrogen, the egg shells give calcium and the banana peels give potassium. This would be great soil for a vegetable garden.

If you do not have the time to wait for the compost to break down you could still fertilize  soil organically, on the cheap. I have heard of people mixing the dirt together with the crushed egg shells and small amounts of coffee grinds. I personally have used coffee grinds to fertilize my vegetables. As a note, some people advise against using coffee grinds as fertilizer because they release nitrogen. But, last summer, the only fertilizer I used for my pumpkin, butternut squash, zucchini, kale, tomatoes and herbs were coffee grinds and egg shells.  I needed to have an inexpensive and easily accessible fertilizer because I had a baby and was on maternity leave, i.e. no money for expensive fertilizers, no time, no sleep.

Simple composting is also a fun thing you can do with your kids. My daughter was an itty bitty baby but on Earth Day last year we used our compost to plant a tree in our backyard. She will not remember it but seeing the tree will always trigger that memory.  

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This entry was posted on Sunday, March 8th, 2009 at 1:02 pm and is filed under Garden. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.