Old-Fashioned Garden Remedies

An interesting lawn-fertilizer tip from Jerry Baker’s book, Old Time Gardening Wisdom, is his Grandma Putt’s Homemade Lawn Food recipe which she applied in the spring and fall. Take 3 lbs. of bone meal, and 3 lbs. of Epson salts mixed in with 50 lbs. of dry lawn food. She applied the mix at half of the recommended rate, 2 weeks apart. Almost immediately after that feeding, she’d give her lawn a snack, which she said helped it digest the dry lawn food. This snack consisted of equal parts of beer, soap, and ammonia mixed in her tank sprayer, and sprayed evenly over the turf. Then about once a month, she’d spray this same mix on her lawn, adding either barnyard tea or homemade fish fertilizer to it to maintain the deep, dark green color. IS SHE KIDDING?

Here’s Andy’s chemical-free lawn fertilizer and it’s a lot easier than mixing beer, soap and ammonia together! Just buy a few bags of lime. Our lawn takes 300 pounds which is about l lb per 100 sq foot. Then dump it in a regular spreader and apply. The only thing it doesn't do is get rid of weeds, though the thinking is, the more dense and healthy the lawn, the fewer weeds will survive. 


Mr. Baker’s Grandma Putt used Fels-Naptha soap to eliminate her weeds. You can also use the all-purpose miracle soap to wash clothes, rid plants of pests, and control black spot fungus on roses. Plus use it to treat poison ivy. Wow! If you still have weeds in your lawn after they've been washed and dried, there are some great ideas for using dandelions in salads, baths and as spring tonics! You can find that in his book, too.