Homemade lawn fertilizer makes green grass of a private house.

4 Recipes for Homemade DIY Lawn and Garden Fertilizer

I love a beautiful yard, but I hate spending a lot of money to get it that way, which explains why I am always looking for cheap do-it-yourself ways to kill weeds, grow flowers, and feed lawns.

Homemade lawn fertilizer makes green grass of a private house.

I have come across some very clever tips and tricks, including reclassifying the dandelion as a low-maintenance, hearty ground cover. While you ponder that suggestion, take a look at these clever ideas to make your own landscape supplies.

Lawn Food

Mix four pounds of magnesium sulfate (Epsom salt) in a giant bin or bucket with a bag of your favorite lawn food that covers 2,500 sq. ft. Now feed your lawn the same amount of this mixture as recommended on the lawn food bag. You’ll save a lot of money because you’ll be using only half the normal amount of fertilizer. Plus, this formulation cuts down on the nitrogen which makes your lawn grow so fast.

You’ll have the wonderful deep-green color, better root structure, and you won’t have to mow as often.

Lawn Snack

Try this on your lawn every three weeks during the summer. 

Pour the beer and shampoo into a 32 oz. hose-end sprayer jar; fill up the jar with ammonia. Set the dial to no more than 3 or 4 oz per gallon, and apply, following the instructions on the hose-end sprayer.

Spray evenly over your lawn. You can water it within a few minutes after application. The more you water while using this fertilizer, the more the solution will soak into the soil and feed roots. You’re going to have very happy grass.

Caution: Always test a small portion of your lawn, first when trying something new.

Yummy Treat for Vegetables

Mix up a batch of this artillery punch if you want some startling growth in your vegetable garden. All of this smelly stuff goes into that 32-oz. hose-end sprayer*:

Apply to vegetables (using the hose-end sprayer* set to 4 oz.) early in the day, one time halfway through the growing season.

Bug Zapper

This is a preventive measure to keep diseases and bugs away. Start using it early in the season on lawn, flowers, shrubs, vegetables and fruits—everything!

Wait! You don’t have to start chewing and spitting to make this recipe. Sneak into the store and buy a container of chewing tobacco. Dump it into an old nylon stocking or large coffee filter, tie it off and steep uncovered in one quart of boiling water until it turns (disgustingly) brown.

Put a cup of it along with the other ingredients into your trusty hose-end sprayer*; fill balance of jar with warm water and apply to about 2,500 sq. ft (about 3 oz. per gallon). Keep the kids and pets away while applying. Any remaining mix or tobacco juice should be clearly labeled and kept out of reach of children.

*Note: A hose-end sprayer is a 32 oz.(1 quart) jar with a sprayer attachment that connects to the end of your garden hose. This sprayer has a tube inside that siphons the correct ratio of product to water out of the jar as the water passes through the sprayer to correctly dilute the tonic with gallons. See my favorite below.

 

 

 


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5 replies
  1. FoxFarm says:

    the lawn food bag. You’ll save a lot of money because you’ll be using only half the normal amount of fertilizer. Plus, this formulation cuts down on the nitrogen which makes your lawn grow so fast. You’ll have the wonderful deep-green color, better root structure and you won’t have to mow as often.
    Thanks

    Reply
  2. Cally Ross says:

    Thank you for the recipes! I love to make my own (fill in the blank).
    question- I always read to the end of the email containing the link, before clicking “read more”, I enjoy the quotes and the comics, and have found helpful tips too. my question- I can’t visualize the double-zipper-bag tip… is the item added to the bag prior to zipping? does the inner bag turn right-side-out with the zipped part around the middle to contain the item? I don’t get it.

    Reply
    • Mary Hunt says:

      Yes you have to put the item in first. Or you can zip it together on just one side, insert the time them complete the zip around and across the other side. Make sure you turn one of the bags inside out first. That makes it possible to zip easily, while you are but you are actually zipping the two bags together. Experiment! It’s fun.

      Reply

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