{"id":519595,"date":"2010-04-07T18:16:11","date_gmt":"2010-04-07T22:16:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.greenrightnow.com\/?p=10597"},"modified":"2010-04-07T18:16:11","modified_gmt":"2010-04-07T22:16:11","slug":"eight-organic-landscape-products-at-your-local-feed-store","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/519595","title":{"rendered":"Eight organic landscape products at your local feed store"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Barbara Kessler<\/a>
\nGreen Right Now<\/strong><\/p>\n

Frustrated trying to find natural products at boutique nurseries and big-box retailers that have a patchy (kinda like your July lawn) selection of organic products and whose sales staff don\u2019t know much about them?<\/p>\n

\"If<\/p>\n

If you are looking for organics, try finding a local feed and seed store. (Photo: Green Right Now)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Try finding a local feed and seed store. Many stock just what you\u2019re looking for. Why? Because organic farmers use an array of organics and also because farming has a long history of employing natural treatments. How do you think they got things to grow down on the farm before all those chemical concoctions were created?<\/p>\n

So here\u2019s a list of useful landscape products we found at our local feed store, the venerated 124-year-old Lewisville Feed Mill in Lewisville, Texas.<\/p>\n

1 \u2013 Chicken Manure<\/strong> \u2013 It may be poop, but it\u2019s a premium fertilizer that\u2019s higher in nitrogen than cow manure. However, because it\u2019s so rich, it can burn plants. Organic gardeners recommend composting it first. Dairy cow manure is less rich and can be spread around and used as a top dressing on lawns and beds. For the straight poop on this topic see this excellent article:\u00a0Manure Matters<\/a> by organic gardener and author Marion Owen at\u00a0PlanTea.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

2 \u2013 Cottonseed Meal<\/strong> \u2013 Also a good nitrogen feed for lawn or gardens and it won\u2019t burn turf, even if it\u2019s liberally applied. It also supplies phosphoric acid and potash. No room to ruminate about those ingredients here. Suffice it to say that they\u2019re nutrients your grass needs. One downside, because cotton is notoriously pesticide-heavy crop, this can contain pesticide residues.<\/p>\n

3 \u2013 Alfalfa Meal<\/strong> \u2013 Another nitrogen source. Good for working into beds and amending soil when planting. For a comparison chart on organic fertilizers, see\u00a0Rodale\u2019s All New Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening.<\/a><\/p>\n

4 \u2013 Corn Gluten<\/strong> \u2013 The gold standard among organic gardeners for pre-emergent weed treatments. Some people also use it as a fertilizer. It comes in flake and granule form. You\u2019ll pay more for granule, but it will stay put better too. For more info on why and how corn gluten meal works see the corn gluten website at\u00a0Iowa State University<\/a>, the leader in developing this natural weed fighter.<\/p>\n

5 \u2013 Liquid Seaweed<\/strong> \u2013 Where\u2019s a rich source of nutrients? Oh yeah, the oceans! Dilute and use as a foliar feed. Also works diluted in a couple gallons of water as a perk-me-up for flowering plants and shrubs. Cousin is Kelp Meal, considered a good soil conditioner.<\/p>\n

6 \u2013 Expanded Shale<\/strong> \u2013 Not everyone needs this, but if you do need it, you need it badly. Expanded shale in tiny pebble form helps break up hard, clay soil, improving the drainage and aeration for plants. This rock also soaks up extra moisture and then releases it when the surrounding soil is dry, a minor miracle not to be celebrated in hot climates.<\/p>\n

7 \u2013 Green Sand<\/strong> \u2013 A green-blue sand for \u201cgreening\u201d and fortifying flowering plants and vegetables with potash. It\u2019s rich because it\u2019s derived from marine sediment rock. Also effective in loosening clay soils.<\/p>\n

8 — Molasses<\/strong> \u2013 Don\u2019t get organic gardeners started on this topic, they have a zillion versions of how to mix and use it, perhaps because the bag comes with instructions for feeding livestock, leaving open the question of garden applications. We say just a dab, like two or three spoonfuls does great things in a watering can. Molasses also works as a soil amendment, raising the level of microbe activity. Sweet.<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2007-2010 | Distributed by Green Right Now Network<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Barbara Kessler Green Right Now Frustrated trying to find natural products at boutique nurseries and big-box retailers that have a patchy (kinda like your July lawn) selection of organic products and whose sales staff don\u2019t know much about them? If you are looking for organics, try finding a local feed and seed store. (Photo: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-519595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=519595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519595\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=519595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=519595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=519595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}