Homemade Fertilizers

Over the years Gardening by the Yard host Paul James has provided gardeners with various all-natural, homemade gardening sprays and solutions, mostly pesticides and fungicides. Here he shares his favorite fertilizer recipes:

• Fill a five-gallon bucket about 1/3 full with fallen oak leaves; add water almost to the top of the bucket. Place the bucket in a sunny spot, ideally on a paved surface, and let it steep for about a week or until the water takes on the color of iced tea. Or try this speedy version of the same recipe: add boiling water to the leaves, and use the solution once it's cooled. Pour the leaf "tea" around the base of your plants, and in no time they will perk up. The leftover oak leaves make a dandy mulch, especially when shredded first.

• Line a metal tray with newspaper. Then spread used coffee grounds evenly over the paper — no more than 1/4-inch thick. Let the grounds air-dry, then work them directly into the soil around your plants, or in the case of container plants, simply sprinkle the grounds on the soil surface. If you want to skip the drying process, just toss wet coffee grounds — filter and all — into the compost pile

• You can also use leftover coffee to water your plants, but make sure to dilute it first. Paul suggests a solution of 1 part coffee to 4 parts water. Use the solution on plants once every other week. If the coffee is weak to begin with, use 1 part coffee and 2 parts water.

• Add 1 pint of 5 percent white distilled vinegar to 2 gallons of water and stir. Pour the solution around the base of plants every three months during the growing season.

• Vinegar is also great for giving houseplants a boost. A simple solution of 1 tablespoon apple vinegar to 1 gallon of water will help houseplants green up, especially if the tap water is alkaline. Vinegar does more than lower the pH; it's also loaded with as many as 50 trace minerals.

• Try this organic rose fertilizer, developed by the University of Pennsylvania's Morris Arboretum in Philadelphia: In a large bucket combine 1 cup alfalfa meal, 1 cup fish meal, 1 cup greensand, 1 cup gypsum and 1/2 cup bone meal. Use your hands or a trowel to mix the ingredients well. Sprinkle the fertilizer around the base of your roses and gently scratch it into the soil with a hand cultivator. This formula makes enough for one large rosebush or several small ones, and it's best applied in early spring. You can double, triple or even quadruple the recipe and store the leftovers in an airtight container.