Better Than Miracle Gro! A Natural Fertiliser That Works

Most gardeners who want fast, healthier growth head straight to the shops to pick up some ready-made fertilizer. But times are tough, and branded fertilizers like Miracle-Gro aren't cheap. On top of that, in the garden, it's often better to use something organic rather than relying on synthetic fertilizers wherever you can. But what if I told you that you can make bucket loads of plant food for free? You don't even need to leave your garden. Well, I'm gonna show you how you can make a homemade garden fertilizer that costs nothing. It's incredibly easy to make, and one that your plants are gonna love. Fertilizer is incredibly valuable, especially for plants in pots. It gives them the nutrients they need to actually grow through the season. But here's something most gardeners don't realize. Those same nutrients are already in your garden. You're probably throwing them away. In fact, they're everywhere. I bet you spend a good chunk of your time trying to get rid of them. I'm talking about weeds, of course. Weeds are absolutely packed with nutrients popping up in every nook and cranny of the garden. The trick isn't getting rid of them. It's getting those nutrients back out and putting them to work. If there's one thing weeds are incredibly good at, it's mining nutrients from the soil. They pull up nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, and a whole range of other nutrients, storing them in their leaves, stems, and roots. So every time you pull a weed and throw it away, you're throwing away nutrients your plants would love. Instead, you can turn them into something far more useful. Weed tea, a simple liquid fertilizer that costs next to nothing to make and gives your plants a serious boost during the growing season. Making weed tea really couldn't be any easier. First off, you need a load of weeds. So grab a bucket or wheelbarrow and just go foraging in the garden. But the more variety of weeds you use, the better. Different weeds pull up different nutrients, so a mix gives you a more balanced fertilizer. If you do have comfrey in your garden, then do use plenty of that because that is packed with nutrients. So what I'm going to do, I'm going to grab my weeds and add them to my bucket. And as I go, I'm just going to tear them up loosely. Don't have to go mad or anything, but it just kind of speeds up the process of decomposition when we add the water. Now, I'm not worried about if there's soil going in there or roots or anything like that. That can all go in the mix. So I've got a mix of weeds in here. Dandelions, nettles, bistorta, which is absolutely everywhere in our garden, so I've got plenty of that. A load of unidentified weeds as well. So you want to aim for about two thirds in your bucket, packed quite well in. The more weeds you can get in here, the better. Okay, so I'm about two thirds of the way up this bucket. Now, the next step is to add water. Now, if you've got it, rainwater is best, but tap water is fine. Our rainwater barrel is empty at the moment, so we're going to have to use tap water. So fill it, you want it covering all the weeds, more or less near to the top of the bucket. Okay, I think we're more or less there. All that's left to do now is to cover it loosely, but don't seal it. This fertilizer is made by fermentation, which means that gases are going to build up. So if you seal it tight, there's a risk that those gases won't be able to escape and your mix will potentially burst, which we obviously don't want. So rest a lid on top loosely or cover it with something that allows a bit of airflow. All that's left to do now is to put it in a shady corner of your garden and leave it alone for a couple of weeks to brew. As the weeds decompose, all those nutrients leach into the water. Now, a word of warning, it does absolutely stink, but that's exactly what you want because the fermentation process has been working to create a nutrient-rich liquid fertilizer. And now, as if by magic, here is one that I made earlier. Just pop off the lids. So I did add a couple of plant pot saucers just to weigh it down to make sure that the weeds were in contact with the water. It's quite smelly stuff, I can already smell it. Now, on its own, this stuff is quite potent, especially the longer you leave it. So it does need diluting. So I've got my watering jug from the kitchen here. All it needs is approximately one part fertilizer, like so, and then just to fill it up with water to dilute it. So I've got my wand here again. There you go. And then let's give it a bit of a stir. Okay, you've now got a completely free liquid fertilizer that you can use pretty much anywhere in your garden. I'll typically use it every two to four weeks during the growing season by drenching the soil around the plant. The best bit is that you can keep topping your mix up with water as well as some more weeds to keep it going. The longer you leave it, the more potent it becomes. So you will have to dilute it a bit more over time. Now, if you love recycling in your garden, then watch this video next where I show you how to bring old potting soil back to life in a few simple steps.