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the base of plants. This very whiffy method is best for flowers and shrubs. Equally revolting in odor, but efficacious and more suitable for edibles, the liquid plant feed is recommended.
The leaves of comfrey, borage and nettles (wear gloves!) are gathered and placed into a bucket of water, covered and steeped for several weeks, then applied the same as manure tea. Pick comfrey and borage after flowering, nettles before.
As a . prophylactic treatment for fungal diseases, I add chamomile and horsetail as well. This treatment adds calcium to the soil, much needed for healthy plant tissue. I find liquid manure so helpful, despite its wretched smell, that I have set aside large spaces for growing the plants involved with its making. Additionally, these same herbs make superior compost when added to the pile.
Of course, it is not always possible to have sufficient amounts of compost at hand, especially in the beginning of a new garden. Bought-in fertilizers should be considered, then, with agricultural or high calcium lime being at the top of the list. Usually, if ph is low, indicating acid soils, calcium will be deficient, too.
Wood ash is another source of calcium, yet using too much or too often will cause potassium buildup and soil salinity. Dolomite lime, high in magnesium, should only be used if magnesium levels are unusually low.
Phosphorous can be supplied with colloidal or rock phosphate (avoid the chemical triple phosphate) and potassium and trace minerals are well supplied with kelp meal or seaweed.
Nitrogen is made a huge deal of, but is only needed in quantity in the early uptake cycle of leafy greens, corn and cucumbers. It can be added with alfalfa meal, or better yet, green manures and wellplanned rotations of legumes (preceding plantings with peas or beans).
The only hitch with using organic fertilizers is in figuring out how much. Read the information on the bags and use your best intuition and educated guess: go slowly and
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