The Lawn Fertilizer You Can Make From Common Kitchen Scraps

Feeding your lawn beneficial nutrients helps the grass grow thick and lush. You can make your own lawn fertilizer at home to improve your lawn's health. The lawn fertilizer you can make from common kitchen scraps is compost tea. Compost tea is a liquid brewed with compost and water that contains nutrients and microorganisms that are beneficial for lawns and gardens.

Compost tea might be the secret to a lush, pest-free garden and a thick, healthy lawn. This method offers benefits for plant health with the nutrients of compost in a liquid that can be easily applied to grass and plants as a soil drench or with a sprayer. The nutrients are dissolved in the liquid, so they are easily absorbed by your grass and plants. In addition to fertilizing the lawn, compost tea may help reduce problems with pests and disease by attacking potential infectious microorganisms and depriving them of nutrients.

To make compost tea, you will need compost. You can either buy a small compost bin for the kitchen or make a compost pile in your yard. Some of the best compost bins for your kitchen fit right on the countertop. If you just started composting, there are things you should and should not add to your compost. The natural decomposition process requires both carbon rich (browns) and nitrogen rich (greens) organic matter. Examples of browns include sawdust, leaves, and straw. Greens include vegetable scraps, coffee grounds, and grass clippings. Avoid adding meat, seafood scraps, and bone to your compost.

When your compost is ready to go, fill a 5-gallon bucket with chlorine-free water. Create a tea bag for your compost using cheesecloth, nylon pantyhose, or a small mesh bag. Fill your homemade tea bag with 4 to 6 cups of compost. Take your tea bag and suspend it in the bucket of water. For best results, the water should be aerated, which can be done using an aquarium pump and air stones.

You should allow the mixture to steep for 24 hours and apply it to your lawn within four hours of finishing the brew. The compost tea can be used full strength on your lawn or plants. Since the lawn may have a significant amount of area to cover, you could dilute the mixture by adding a gallon of water to 5 to 15 gallons of the compost tea. 

While compost tea can be poured right onto the soil around trees and bushes, this method is not practical when covering an entire lawn. For wider applications, try using a sprayer. The larger your lawn, the more tea you'll need. For a half-acre yard, expect to use about 10 gallons worth of diluted compost tea.

The best time to apply the mixture to your lawn is in the morning or evening to avoid the hottest part of the day and the most sun. The tea can be applied every two weeks or monthly for maintenance or when the lawn is stressed. Be sure to clean all equipment used to make and apply compost tea to avoid buildup of bacterial slime.

Critics point to potential downsides of using compost tea on plants. Some say the nutrients in the tea is a fraction of the amount found in compost due to the dilution in water. Other criticisms include a lack of control over the types of bacteria in the tea and the potential for pathogens to get into the brew. Opinions are mixed regarding claims that using the tea can help with disease resistance.