12 Weird Things You Can Add to Your Garden Soil and Make it Healthier

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It doesn’t matter how many hours you spend tilling (not recommended, by the way), raking, digging, and weeding. Without good soil, your garden’s output is likely to be poor, meaning that you’ll find your efforts rewarded with tiny carrots, less-than-impressive cucumbers, and a few sad-looking tomatoes. While it’s possible to create compost or purchase good organic fertilizer, there are plenty of alternatives. Here are a dozen ways to build healthy garden soil using free or inexpensive nutrients. Some might be in your kitchen right now!

1. Ashes

The ashes from your wood burning stove or fireplace are high in calcium, phosphorus, and potassium, and they can balance overly acidic soil by making it more alkaline.

Test your soil before adding ashes, as overly alkaline soil won’t help plants. If you determine that your soil has a pH below 7 and could use an alkaline boost, apply a very small amount of ash in the early spring before tilling, and at least two weeks before planting seeds or transplanting seedlings. Wood ashes are typically applied at a rate of one pounds per 100 square feet. When soil is extremely acidic, use no more than 2.5 pounds of wood ashes per 100 square feet.

You may already know that ashes are caustic. To prepare them for addition to garden soil, don goggles, a dust mask, gloves, and a long-sleeved shirt to prevent irritation. Next, sift them through a screen or colander to eliminate any large chunks. Use a rake to spread the ashes evenly onto the garden, then add any other amendments. Till the soil or turn it over by hand, working the new additions into the upper 6 inches of the garden.

Because ashes that are allowed to rest in piles or buckets quickly lose their nutrients, it’s best to use fresh ashes on your garden. Re-test to see if you need to repeat the process the following year.

2. Aquarium Water

If you have a fresh water fish tank, feel free to give the old water new life by feeding it to your plants. The dirty water is high in trace nutrients including phosphorus, nitrogen, and potassium. Be sure to pour the water directly onto the ground, and only feed your garden with aquarium water that hasn’t been medicated or chemically treated.

3. Coffee Grounds

Not only can coffee perk you up, it can give your plants a new lease on life! Instead of tossing used grounds in the trash, save them for your garden. Coffee grounds are high in nitrogen and potassium, and they’re excellent for neutralizing alkaline soil or simply making nutrient-poor soil richer. Here are a few easy ways to use coffee grounds in your garden.

  • Add spent coffee grounds to your compost bin, filter and all. The grounds will help speed up the decomposition process, and they’ll add valuable nutrients to your compost.
  • Sprinkle a handful of coffee grounds onto the soil around acid-loving plants in springtime. This is one of the easiest ways to help blueberry bushes thrive.
  • Boost the blue color of hydrangeas by sprinkling a handful of coffee grounds onto the soil around the bushes’ bases each spring.

4. Cooking Water

Next time you cook veggies or boil eggs, save the water for your garden. Be sure to let it cool completely before pouring it onto the soil around your plants, and only fertilize with cooking water that hasn’t been salted. This is a very mild treatment so feel free to repeat it as often as you like.

5. Egg Shells

Egg shells are high in calcium and other minerals, so it pays to save them for your garden. Simply allow the shells to dry or dry them in the oven, then crumble them up and apply them directly to the soil. If you’re transplanting tomato seedlings into the ground, put a handful of crushed eggshells into the hole before you add the tomato seedling and you’ll enjoy faster growth. You can also apply crushed eggshells to soil around the base of each tomato plant during active growth.

6. Epsom Salt

Epsom salt isn’t just for bathing. It is also an excellent organic fertilizer. This inexpensive soil additive contains hydrated magnesium and sulfate, which treats plants to a welcome boost of sulfur and magnesium. Here are a few easy ways to use Epsom salt for gardening:

  • When transplanting seedlings, add a tablespoon of Epsom salt to the soil around the base of each plant. Repeat the feeding again when the plants bloom, and once more when they set fruit. This method works wonders on tomatoes and peppers.
  • Dissolve 1 tablespoon of Epsom salt in one gallon of water and use it to feed plants every other week.
  • Create a foliar spray for heavy feeders such as tomatoes and roses by dissolving 2 tablespoons of Epsom salt in one gallon of water. Apply it just once a month.

It’s worth noting that despite its name, Epsom salt contains no actual salt, which harms plants. Be certain to use plain Epsom salt without scents, oils, or other additives.

7. Fruit Peels

Most of us enjoy eating fruits such as bananas and oranges. Next time you treat yourself to fruit, let it do double duty by nourishing your garden as well as your body! Heavy fruit skins make an excellent source of free fertilizer. If you’re not into composting, you can simply chop the peels and add them to soil. They’ll break down slowly, releasing nutrients along the way. If you’re concerned about attracting pests, you can work the peels into the first few inches of the soil.

8. Grass Clippings

If you have a lawn, why not send the nutrients from your grass clippings back into the garden’s soil? This is an easy way to help your garden thrive, plus a thin layer of grass clippings acts as mulch, which holds moisture in the soil and helps keep the weed population from exploding. Speaking of weeds, be sure to add only seed-free grass clippings to your garden. If it has been a while since you last mowed and your clippings are full of seeds, it’s best to compost the clippings instead of placing them directly onto the garden.

9. Hair

Hair is made of a protein called keratin, which can enrich soil and help plants thrive. Next time you groom your pet or clean out your own hairbrush, save the hair and add it to your compost heap or work it into your garden’s soil. This is a very gentle fertilizer that breaks down slowly, so feel free to put that hair to good use without worries over harming your plants.

10. Molasses

Molasses is rich in iron, potassium, calcium, and magnesium, along with sulfur. It also contains natural sugars, which helps plants thrive while encouraging beneficial bacterial activity in garden soil. It’s easy to feed plants with molasses: simply mix two to three tablespoons of molasses into a gallon of water and pour it into the soil around plants. You can also use this mixture as a foliar spray, which can be applied every two weeks.

11. Powdered Milk

With vitamins, protein, calcium, and other nutrients, powdered milk makes an excellent addition to garden soil. Feeding plants with milk is an easy way to reduce problems associated with calcium deficiency, particularly blossom end rot, which can affect tomatoes, peppers, and members of the gourd family. If you’d like to give this method a try, simply apply a sprinkling of powdered milk to your garden in springtime, just before tilling. You can also reconstitute the milk and pour it around the bases of plants once a month or so. Also, don’t pour out your sour milk! You can use this to help your garden as well. Raw milk is best, but if you get it before it’s gone too far bad, pasteurized milk could be helpful as well.

12. Tea Bags

Next time you brew a cup of tea, don’t throw the bag in the trash! Those used tea leaves will gradually improve your garden soil’s structure while increasing nitrogen and treating earthworms to a tasty snack. Here are two ways to use tea bags in the garden.

  • Tea can help speed up composting and improve your compost’s composition overall. Traditional paper tea bags with paper tags can go into the compost bin whole. You’ll have to slit the plastic mesh variety open and empty their contents into the bin.
  • Add tea directly to the soil. Simply slit your used tea bags open and sprinkle the spent leaves on the ground underneath the plants. This method is great for all plants, and will give heavy feeders an extra boost. If you have roses, be sure to treat them to tea leaves periodically as it can really help them thrive.

13. Urine

Yikes! This is one of the weirdest fertilizers out there, but thanks to its phosphate, potassium, and nitrogen content, it also happens to be one of the best, particularly for tomatoes and other vegetables that require lots of nutrients. If you’d like to try this method for enriching soil, urinate in a clean container, mix the urine into a gallon of water, and pour the water onto the soil around your plants. Don’t worry – this natural fertilizer is sterile when it leaves your body, and it’s completely safe for plants so long as you aren’t fighting a urinary tract infection or taking medications.

It’s easy to grow big, vigorous plants without expensive chemical fertilizers. Have fun and try a few of these healthy soil ingredients. Your garden will thank you!