Garden Lesson wk of 7/9 - Why no chemical fertilizers?

Why don’t we use chemical fertilizers? – I find that most people who garden assume that nothing will grow unless it is “fed” with something from the store. If we look at the history of agriculture, we can see why this seems to be true. Historically, western cultures have plowed/tilled the land, harvested from it and not added back anything that was taken out. This quickly depletes the soil’s nutrients and requires that they be replaced somehow. Enter the packaged fertilizer! At Crown Gardens, we take a different approach. The soil we started with has everything in it that our plants need to thrive (as they have more than proven). By capturing much of what is taken from the soil through composting the kitchen waste, we keep these nutrients in our garden where they can feed another generation of plants. We also add other materials to our compost – grass clippings, coffee grounds from work, and food scraps from home (yes, you can bring food scraps for our compost – ask if you want advice on how to do so without smells or huge inconvenience). These supplements to our pile add nutrients that can be depleted very quickly – namely nitrogen – and serve to keep our soil healthy. As long as we continue this cycle of recapturing nutrients in our compost and adding the compost to the beds every year, we should maintain our garden’s fertility and productivity.