Homemade Plant Food Recipe
This post may contain affiliate links. If you purchase through links on my site, I may earn a commission at no cost to you. For more information, please see my disclosure policy.
I have a homemade plant food recipe for you, so you can make it at home and avoid the cost of purchasing it. With just a few ingredients, you can make your own plant food.
Someone asked me about fertilizing, and I don’t normally fertilize my patio plants. I generally just let them be.
However, I found a recipe for homemade plant food that I plan to try. I found it on the Bob Vila website. It’s just a few ingredients, and they are inexpensive. You may already have some or all of these things.
Epsom salt, baking soda, household ammonia, and water are all you need to make this homemade plant food.
Instructions:
- Measure 1 ½ tablespoons of Epsom salt into a clean gallon jug. A rinsed-out plastic milk jug with its lid makes an excellent container for this homemade plant food.
- Add 1 ½ teaspoons of baking soda to the jug.
- Measure a scant ½ teaspoon of household ammonia into the jug.
Here’s what these simple ingredients do:
Household Plain Ammonia: Ammonia contains nitrogen and hydrogen, a powerful nutrient for plants when the nitrogen is converted to nitrate by natural bacteria. This cannot be substituted. Don’t use ammonia with any additives.
Epsom Salt: This addition provides magnesium and sulfur to the plants, enhancing the soil’s nutrient content.
Baking Soda: The primary purpose of this is to eliminate mildew on your plants and act as a fungicide.
Abi:
Abi is still peeing on my bed at night. They gave her a shot for an infection a week ago. I called the vet, and he thinks it’s a case of incontinence.
I went to pick up medication at his vet office. He said he pretty much ruled out everything else. So we’ll see.
It happens mostly at night. He said that it most often occurs when they’re fully relaxed, which makes sense.
I have less and less of my bed to sleep on as the night wears on, but at least there’s a dry spot.
He said if this medication makes her jittery (oh surely heavens no) we’d revisit it. I told him she’s jittery enough as it is.
She follows me around and has severe separation anxiety. It would be hard to imagine her being more jittery.
Hope, who has worked for the vet for as long as I can remember, told me that Abi is her favorite Yorkie. Hope likes her smile.
She does have a big personality. Some people think she’s baring her teeth, but she is smiling.
I hope the new medication will work for Abi; she is just so adorable. It is hard when our animals get older. My Molly is 10 and the love of my life so let’s hope Miss Abi’s incontinence will get under control for your sake. Your patio looks so inviting! I think I’d spend my afternoons out there with a tall glass of cold iced tea, a good book and the pups. Enjoy your evening! Carol
Awww, poor little Abi! I wonder would it help to put down one of those large wee wee pads where she sleeps? I get the extra large ones from Chewy and leave them down on the floor in my daughter’s room when I’m at work for the three pups and they do a great job. Here’s the link to the ones I buy https://www.chewy.com/frisco-giant-training-potty-pads-275/dp/117278 – it might just be worth a try not to have to change the sheets every day!
I’ll have to try this recipe for fertilizer; so nice to use something “natural.”
Thinking about Abi and wishing her well. Hope the new medication works. Abi is so pretty and looks so sweet. You just want to hug her.
First thing I thought of were bed pads. Either the kind for us humans or the training pads they have for dogs. See whichever is less costly.
Try the pads for humans to put under the sheet. I used those for a while before my cat died last spring. Sam would pee and poop at night and those really helped. I remember toward the end that I put them under the bottom sheet, on top of the bottom sheet and a third layer on whatever cover I was using. Took forever to make the bed but easy to clean up. Walmart carries a blue and white striped set of disposable human pads that are larger than the pet pads. And they are softer and not crinkly noisy either. Seems like they were less expensive too. It was well worth it to have Sam be comfortable and not keep him out of the bedroom at night. I used them after I came home from surgery too.
Your garden is looking great. Poor Abi and you (wet bed). I hope the meds help that sweet girl. Hugs!
I would not have thought of that combo of ingredients for plant food, amazing! Good to know, thanks for sharing.
I was going to recommend dog diapers but I see you’ve already tried that.
My, how everything is beautifully blooming on your patio! We have a ways to go here, as the weather hasn’t been cooperative.
My elderly female Sheltie used to wet her bed when she was sleeping. Our Vet gave her an estrogen pill to be taken daily and it worked like a charm! I hope Abi’s med works for her too!
I sure hope the new medication helps! The first thing I thought of was maybe a doggy diaper, I googled it and it’s a thing. Maybe that can be an option if the bed wetting continues.
Also, your plants look lovely! I too love my garden and plants, it’s wonderful to see all of the new blooms and growth that are seemingly happening by the minute his time of the year!
Have a wonderful day!
I have a whole pack of doggy diapers. I can’t keep one on her.