Gardening
Rags to Riches: All Natural Homemade Fertilizer
By Iris Marlow·February 4, 2026· 8 min read
A small yard is not a limit; it is a design brief. Three beds, each no wider than your reach, will grow more food than one enormous bed you can only weed from the edges.
Cedar weathers to a silvery grey that looks right in almost any garden. Line the beds with cardboard, not plastic — the worms will thank you within a season. Fill with a mix of compost, topsoil, and something airy like coconut coir.
Plant tomatoes with basil, carrots with chives, lettuce with anything that will shade it in August. The garden knows how to help itself if you let it.
Rags to Riches All-Natural Liquid Fertilizer
Prep
30 minutes
Cook
—
Additional
2–3 weeks brewing
Total
3 weeks
Servings
10 gallons diluted
Ingredients
- 2 cups fresh comfrey leaves, torn
- 2 cups grass clippings or weeds (no seed heads)
- 1 cup vegetable kitchen scraps
- 1 tablespoon molasses (unsulphured)
- 1 gallon rainwater or dechlorinated water
- 1 five-gallon bucket with a loose lid
- Old pillowcase or mesh bag
- Watering can for diluting
Instructions
- 1Gather comfrey, nettle, and green weeds early in the morning while they are full of moisture.
- 2Tear or chop the greens so they break down faster.
- 3Pack the greens loosely into the pillowcase and tie the top closed.
- 4Drop the bag into the bucket and weigh it down with a clean stone.
- 5Pour in the water until the greens are fully covered.
- 6Stir in the molasses to feed the microbes doing the work.
- 7Cover with a loose lid — it needs air, not a seal.
- 8Set the bucket in a shaded corner, far from windows and the back door.
- 9Stir every two or three days; it will smell honest and earthy.
- 10Let it brew for two to three weeks until the liquid turns dark tea-brown.
- 11Lift out the bag and add the spent greens to the compost pile.
- 12Dilute one part concentrate to ten parts water — it should look like weak tea.
- 13Water at the base of plants in the cool of the morning or evening.
- 14Feed leafy crops every two weeks and fruiting crops every three.
- 15Store the undiluted concentrate, covered, for up to six weeks.
Notes
- Never apply undiluted — it is strong enough to scorch tender roots.
- Skip any weed that has gone to seed unless you want it everywhere next season.