Enriching the soil naturally infuses it with nutrients required by plants.
Looking at a healthy crop of tomatoes or a bush bursting with radiant flowers, it's easy to imagine that the gardener tending the plants has a few special tricks and secrets up his sleeve. However, almost anyone can develop a green thumb by enriching the soil and creating healthy, fertile earth to nourish plants as they grow, providing them with vital nutrients. Does this Spark an idea?
Add Eggshells
After a week of cooking, it's easy to end up with a pile of broken eggshells. However, eggshells needn't end up in the trash, as they can be used to create rich soil for gardening naturally. Calcium -- an important nutrient for plants and tomatoes in particular -- can quickly be drained from soil as plants grow, but eggshells will provide an adequate supply. To get the most from the shells, carefully wash them clean of egg residue and crush them into small pieces, which will make them break down and absorb into the soil quicker. Eggshells sprinkled around young, growing plants will keep away certain pests, like slugs and worms, by cutting them with their sharp edges.
Give the Soil a Coffee Rush
Coffee grounds may seem like just another byproduct to toss in the garbage, but they are high in nutrients needed to create quality enriched soil. Sunset Magazine conducted a test using coffee grounds and found that adding it to dirt will "improve soil structure over the short term and over the long term." Many coffee shops, including major chains, give away bags of grounds for free. The grounds can be mixed into the soil at depths of 6 to 8 inches or sprinkled on top of and around plants to let nutrients like potassium, nitrogen and phosphorus sink deep into the soil, where they can absorbed, negating the need for harsh chemical fertilizers.
Try Green Manure
Though the word "manure" may bring to mind stinky and unpleasant substances, green manure is not so noxious. Consisting of plants which are cut or plowed under and left to decompose instead of being harvested, green manure enriches the earth with nutrients naturally, without the use of chemicals. According to Organic Farming World, using green manure prevents the growth of weeds and the presence of pests, and increases soil's nutrient content as well as biological activity. Green manure can be used to improve poor quality soil or prepare the earth for perennial crops, which require soil rich in nutrients to bloom year after year. Crops used to make green manure include sweet clover, velvet beans and guar, a kind of bean.
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