As with lawn fertilizers, the nutrients of most general purpose fertilizers on the market today are synthesized rather than derived from natural plant or animal matter. They are packaged as liquids or powders to dissolve in water, or as granular products.
We Go Natural in the Tool Shed
Natural general purpose fertilizers come the closest to replicating the natural nutrient processes of the soil itself. They come in “granular” or solid form or in “liquid” form. The granular natural products are by their nature slow-acting, because they depend on microbial action in the soil to release their nutrients for the plant roots. This feature protects the soil and its life and serves the plants better. That is why we offer product information only on natural lawn fertilizer products.
Slow release nitrogen lawn fertilizers can usually be used safely on almost any plant on the property. However, lawn fertilizers tend to have an emphasis on nitrogen, even if it is a slow release form. Therefore, for fertilizing ornamental plants around the landscape we are better to use what is called a "balanced" general fertilizer. In these cases, the nitrogen, phospherous and potassium are much closer in terms of their percentages in the product. You will see NPK numbers such as 5-10-5 or 5-5-5.
