Fertilizers: Artificial vs. Natural

Break the petrolium cycle by growing fertilizer.

Over the past fifty years Americans have grown accustom to purchasing goods, using them, and trowing them away. We have also become accustom to the flow of good and services through our homes. Food, detergents, paper products are all products we use, then throw away. Our landscapes have become that way too. Most of us don’t realize it because the work is done by others who come and quietly do the job of making our urban environment beautiful.

Our homes have become little factories that take in goods and materials, process them, then export a product in the form of waste.

Remember this image because we will look at that a little later. Many of us have begun to look closely at how we live and find ways to stop purchasing goods that produce waste and pollution. Your landscape needs attention too. Every aspect of traditional landscape maintenance requires fossil fuels to complete. As chemical fertilizers are applied, new growth is pushed from the plants. Then gas or diesel is burned to cut back the grass and shrubs. The clippings are like the product that is hauled away to the landfill.

Here’s the point. Natural, free, abundant nitrogen is available all around you. Nitrogen is the element in artificial fertilizers that gets the most attention. It boosts growth of green shoots and leaves and gives a nice green color. It is applied in the spring to fill in dead spots from winter and give a lush appearance. Phosphorous and Potassium are also key elements in artificial fertilizers. They regulate flowering and promote stress resistance. For more general information about fertilizer visit wikipedia – fertilizers.

We will focus on Nitrogen for this discussion due to it’s ability to leech out of the root zone and cause pollution, the amount of energy that is used to produce it, and finally the fact that it can be manufactured right in your soil today from the air.
There are five landscape practices that make up the bulk of activity on any property.

1. Irrigation
2. Fertilization
3. Pest Control
4. Mowing
5. Pruning

The order is very important. Irrigation and fertilization are the two key factors that influence most everything else. By closely regulating the quantity and source of the fertilizers, while properly maintaining irrigation levels, you can reduce pesticides, mowing time, and pruning.

It’s a simple fact: the more food and energy you give to the plants, the bigger they will get. The fact is that plants have evolved to survive on very little nutrients. In fact we already know the philosophy of choosing native or adapted plants that don’t need much to grow. With the practice of the hybrid landscape, a combination of 20% exotic or imported plants and 80% native or adapted plants, a very nice landscape with a traditional look can be achieved. Yet the grass still has to be mowed. Trees, shrubs, and flowers still have to look nice.

So how do we do this with the minimal amount of materials coming in and going out of our home landscape?

5% of the worlds natural gas is used to produce artificial nitrogen fertilizers.

In an earlier post I discussed at length how to manage your irrigation system to save water and promote healthy, deeper roots. This will help your landscape with nutrient uptake as well. Fertilization and irrigation are linked in another way too. Pollution. Any fertilizer nutrients that are not used by the plant are lost to the environment. These can pollute streams and lakes and cause toxins to build up in well water. Another issue is that 5% of the worlds natural gas goes to the production of artificial fertilizers. Reduce fertilizer use and you reduce the burning of fossil fuels.

Artificial fertilizers…The flaw is that it’s a linear system. Artificial fertilizers are applied because it a simple easy way to get a lawn green and growing. There is nothing wrong with that. The flaw is that it’s a linear system. Meaning that materials (fertilizers, water) go in, are processed (mowed and clipped) into finish products, (clippings) then hauled off site (to the landfill). A system of feeding and growing the natural colonies of microorganisms in the soil to provide nutrients to plants will reduce or eliminate the need for artificial fertilizers. Thus making the system more circular. Determining if your soils are high in microbes is difficult for the average homeowner. knowing where the soils for your yard came from is difficult if not impossible. Yet their are a few thing you can do to determine the best course of action to make your soils healthier.

http://www.ecolandscapegroup.com – More information on reducing your landscape carbon footprint.

http://www.cleanairgardening.com/ is a great source for natural lawn and garden products including fertilizers, soil microbial additives, and composting products.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fertilizers is a good link for more information on fertilizers and their effects.