Let’s talk about growing food and fertilizing!
The more we grow the more happy we are! Growing food is therapy, is a fun activity for kids and families as a whole to participate in, it’s a great movement activity and you get to befriend bees, butterflies, and all the other garden creatures that bring happiness to the gardens! I am so grateful that my mom brought me into the garden that one day and that my mom, Rhonda Burns, aunts and uncles shared the wisdom that growing food has been a long part of our families pathways!
Gardening has been a beautiful part of my life for some years now! Yes weeds happen and that’s no fun to weed but, once you get a rhythmic flow for weeding it’s easier and therapeutic as well!
Fertilizing is an important part of gardening to put nutrients into the soil to encourage beautiful, colorful, flavorful produce! Ever wonder what the difference in fertilizers are? Nows your chance dear friends!
Here’s a few options I use and why:
Banana peels
Are essential for me, as you know the banana is beloved because it is a good source of potassium, calcium, magnesium and phosphorus. So many beneficial vitamins and minerals in bananas peels that are wonderful for healthy, happy, flowering fruits, vegetables, herbs and beans!
Bat guano
I love to use bat poop! It has nitrogen, potassium, phosphorus and so much more in it, it’s processed fruit pretty much 🤣. It promotes growth, encourages flower blooms and strengthens the root system, is a fungicide and it enriches the soil, and improves draining!
Kelp
Kelp is a soil conditioner and I mean it’s from the ocean and that in itself means it’s full of so many nutrients like chlorophyll, nitrogen, potash and phosphorus that are amazing for your garden and what you’re growing in it. Kelp has improve soil health, soil structure, aeration, moisture retention, and has huge populations of beneficial bacteria.
Compost (get yourself a worm bin)
Is packed full of SO MANY nutrients and organic matter, and natural compost releases nutrients in small waves so that your plants get what they need when they need it and don’t damage the plant like chemical compost can. It’s also a healthy home for beneficial microorganisms, adds sulfur (helps build chlorophyll) and nitrogen among many other happy dancers that strengthen your soil, compost also helps improve your soil’s texture! A big score is making your own compost reduces the waste!
Organic alfalfa meal
(I use for adding when growing cabbage family members)
Down to earth vegan mix 3-2-2
If you try one let me know how it comes out and if you want to make your own potting mix for the most nutritious food growth.
These strawberries have banana peel and kelp water poured in regularly
My compost from my beautiful worm community (I make a seven layer worm bin regularly, took me a minute to figure out my worms cycle and get a handle on the fruit flies but now it’s all lovely) and black gold is💰.
These beautiful peppers growing after fertilizing with bay guano tea. (Contact your friends that care for bats and get some bat💩 )
Fertilizing for the fall and the future. Support our work to bring fresh food, gardening goods, and education to our communities about the power of plants for our health by donating to our Fall Harvest Impact Campaign. This 6 week campaign is helping to stabilize our operations through the fall and winter. Donate today to help us close the fresh food apartheid gap in King county.
Gratitude,
Chef Ariel Bangs