In this day and age, many people are becoming more aware of the environment as well as the world around them. If you're an official "Greenie" or you want to get into organic gardening there a few really easy ways to go about this! First off, why should you try anything organic or "green?" Its been said since the 1980s and even earlier on that there was a huge hole forming in the ozone from things like methane gases from garbage dumps, animals becoming extinct because of littering, and polar ice caps melting and collapsing piece by piece because of the rising temperatures. Isn't it about time we start saving the place we live in, rather than hurting it even more?



This is where becoming green or living organically comes into play, and the easiest place to start is right in your own backyard! Several million sites online offer tips on how you can start an organic garden and become greener in your life. These sites also offer other things as well such as products that are good for the earth and recipes you can make for things such as you're own green compost! These sites are pretty useful and really interesting. As said above, even if you aren't an official "greenie" but you're curious about how stuff like this works, this is a great place to start.

Organic fertilizers are made from such items as cottonseed meal, compost, and bone meal. As well as other things such as Green Sand, Kelp Meal, Fish Meal, and Blood Meal.

Cottonseed Meal: Cottonseed meal is the byproduct remaining after cotton is ginned and the seeds crushed and the oil extracted. The remaining meal is usually used for animal feed.

Bone Meal: Bone meal is a mixture of crushed and coarsely ground bones that is used as an organic fertilizer for plants and formerly in animal feed. As a slow-release fertilizer, bone meal is primarily used as a source of phosphorus.

Green Sand: Green sand forms in anoxic marine environments that are rich in organic detritus and low in sedimentary input.

Kelp Meal: Kelp Meal is brown seaweed harvested from the cold, nutrient-rich waters of the north Atlantic Ocean. Kelp Meal, Ascophyllum nodosum, is the best species of kelp for both horticultural and agricultural use.

Fish Meal: Fish meal, or fish-meal, is a commercial product made from both whole fish and the bones and offal from processed fish. It is a brown powder or cake obtained by rendering pressing the whole fish or fish trimmings to remove the fish oil.

Blood Meal: Blood meal is dried, powdered blood used as a high-nitrogen fertilizer. It is one of the highest non-synthetic sources of nitrogen and if over-applied it can burn plants with excessive ammonia. Blood meal is completely soluble and can be mixed with water to be used as a liquid fertilizer. It usually comes from cattle as a slaughterhouse by-product. It can be spread on gardens to deter animals such as rabbits, or as a compost activator.

Here are some really great recipes that use the above ingredients as well:

Rose feed/mulch

3 cups Alfalfa Meal

3 cups Mushroom compost

1-cup bone meal

Lilac, and other sweet soil lover feed/mulch

1-cup bone meal

3 cups lime

3 cups mushroom compost

Azaleas and Rhodo feed/mulch

1/2-cup rock phosphate

1/2-cup green sand

1/2-cup cottonseed

1/8-cup Epsom salts

1/2 cup used coffee grinds

20 shovels fish compost

Perennial feed/mulch

1/2-cup bone meal

1/2 cup green sand

1/2-cup rock phosphate

1 wheelbarrow of leaf mould

Fruit tree feed/mulch

5 shovels leaf mould

5 shovels garden compost

5 shovels peat moss

1-cup bone meal

1/4-cup rock phosphate

1/4-cup alfalfa

1/4-cup green sand

Basic Organic Fertilizer

3 parts blood or fish-meal

3 parts steamed bone meal

1 part kelp meal

1 and 1/2 parts Sul-Po-Mag (a brand name for a sulfur, potassium, and magnesium source, but you can substitute any such mixture.)

High Nitrogen Mix

4 parts blood meal

2 parts cottonseed meal

1 part steamed bone meal

1/2 part Sul-Po-Mag (a brand name source for sulfur, potassium, and magnesium)

1/2 part kelp meal

High Potassium Mix

2 parts cottonseed meal

2 and 1/2 parts Sul-Po-Mag

1 and 1/2 parts steamed bone meal

1 part green-sand

1 part kelp meal

High Phosphorous Mix

4 parts steamed bone meal

1 part fish meal

1 part meat and bone meal

1 part soft phosphate

1/2 part Sul-Po-Mag

1/2 part kelp meal

You can find any and all of these ingredients at your local garden center so its not that difficult to find! All it takes is a little creativity and you can make all sorts of really green fertilizers for your vegetable or flower garden at home! If you're searching for some more tips try going to Google and looking for things like "Organic Garden Tips" or "Green Garden Tips."