Organic gardening is more popular than ever, so there’s a genuine demand for homemade plant food and organic fertilizer. Everyone deserves the opportunity to produce their own healthy, delicious garden treats, and we’ve got the best information about homemade fertilizer for herbs to help you.
Herbs are not heavy-feeding; they’re less flavorful when over-fertilized, making it essential to strike the right balance. Slow-growing herbs have small leaves and woody stems and come initially from the dry Mediterranean, such as oregano, rosemary, sage, thyme, and tarragon. Fast-growing herbs like basil, cilantro, and borage require slightly more fertilizer to reach their potential.
Plant fertilizer corrects any soil imbalance that negatively affects the growth of your garden. Much like people, plants require diverse nutrients to thrive, and vitamin deficiencies aren’t uncommon. For example, yellow leaves mean more nitrogen is needed, or a phosphorous deficiency may turn the leaves purple. A watchful eye and some helpful homemade fertilizer keep your herb garden green and growing.

Learn How to Fertilize Herbs with DIY Recipes
When it comes to hearty, healthy herb gardens, synthetic fertilizers and chemical fertilizers are out, and organic plant fertilizers are in. Discover some fantastic hints for how to fertilize herbs with organic herb fertilizer and DIY recipes.
Grass Clippings for Your Herb Garden
Save the leftovers for your herb garden the next time you’re doing some grass clipping. Grass clippings are a fantastic low-cost, natural herb fertilizer that deters weeds and helps your soil conserve moisture during the hotter months.
Grass clippings contain roughly 2% potassium, 4% nitrogen, and 1% phosphorus, and they also provide essential nutrients to encourage healthy microbial growth in the soil.
An inch or two of grass clipping fertilizer offers sufficient coverage for the whole growing season. Remember to use grass clippings that haven’t been growing using herbicide or chemical fertilizer.
Weed Tea as a Homemade Fertilizer for Herbs
Weed tea or compost tea is an infused nutrient solution made from the steeped leaves of garden weeds and healthy compost. Weeds store vital nutrients like nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus in their leaves and root systems, releasing them into the water and making an excellent liquid fertilizer.
All you need to make your own weed tea when considering fall herbs to plant is a 5-gallon bucket, some weeds, and water. We recommend eight cups of water for each pound of weeds and stirring the mixture regularly over 24 hours.
Strain all the solid bits out, and dilute the weed tea to a combination of one part tea and ten parts water. Pour directly into the soil, and watch your herb food produce measurable, delicious plant growth.
Compost Counts as Organic Herb Fertilizer
Recycling organic matter into compostables to create certifiably organic herb fertilizer is an effective organic gardening strategy. Compost reduces methane emissions from overflowing landfills and improves soil fertility for container plants, indoor plants, and garden plants.
Compost is easy to throw together with simple household waste like egg shells, fruit and vegetables, coffee grounds, and even manure. When fertilizing herbs or using compost as fertilizer for zucchini plants, mix in a bit of homemade compost to your potting soil before planting, or add an inch of compost once or twice in a growing season and water it into the ground.
It’s also possible to use eggshell to fertilize tomatoes and herbs. Crushed eggshells around the bottom of plants deter slugs, or you can make eggshell tea to water the plants.
How to Fertilize Herbs with Epsom Salt
Magnesium sulfate or Epsom salt is a mineral initially noted in the well-water in Epsom, England. Many gardeners swear by consistently applying this humble salt as a foliar spray to cure magnesium deficiencies. Epsom salt has been used as a homemade fertilizer for herbs for years. Learn how to make your own natural fertilizer spray.
Homemade fertilizers using Epsom salt are easy to make and even easier to apply. Dissolve two tablespoons of Empson salt into a gallon of water. Apply Epsom salt around herbs and pepper plants. Spray your herbs monthly with this DIY plant food and watch them thrive.
As you start planting herbs in early spring, Epsom salt speeds germination and root development when applied as a soil aid before planting.
Add Organic Meal to Your Herb Garden
Organic additives like cottonseed meal, corn gluten meal, or seed meal are among the best fertilizer for herbs and are a great way to boost your soil and correct specific deficiencies.
Cottonseed meal has lots of nitrogen and is a slow-acting fertilizer best used to condition soil in the fall for spring planting. Corn gluten meal is an excellent soil stabilizer and ideal as a fall prep fertilizer.
Bone meal comes from the bones of butchered cows. It’s very high in phosphorus and boasts a decent nitrogen content. Bone meal is a favorite among the organic gardening crowd because it encourages healthy root growth and flower production.
Feather meal is a nitrogen-rich additive that gives everything an all-around healthy boost. If you’re wondering how to fertilize herbs with organic meal additives, it’s easy. Sprinkle some meal into your garden soil and water it in. One application per growing season gives your herbs the natural boost they need.
Wood Ash as Organic Herb Fertilizer
Using the ashes as compost and fertilizer is an option if you have a wood-burning stove or a wood-burning fire pit in the yard. Wood ash from untreated wood is a great way to amend soil deficiencies and help plants that suffer from lack of potassium.
Allow the wood ash to cool, and apply as mulch for your alkaline herbs. Since wood ash reduces soil acidity, it isn’t suitable for acid loving plants and herbs.
DIY Fish Emulsion Recipe
The concept of burying fish as fertilizer and using fish emulsion as organic herb fertilizer is nothing new; ancient peoples have been doing it for thousands of years. Fish fertilizer gives a healthy nitrogen boost and is a fantastic replacement for synthetic fertilizer and harsh chemicals.
We’ have a great recipe to make a DIY fertilizer for herbs from healthy fish parts you can make in your kitchen.
The homemade fish emulsion contains vital nutrients that aren’t always available in a commercially manufactured fish emulsion. Making fish emulsion is simple, if a bit smelly. Add the fresh fish, sawdust, and molasses to the 5-gallon bucket, and make sure there’s a lid to mask the smell.
Stir the emulsion daily for about two weeks or until the fish has broken down. Always dilute your fish emulsion with water; we recommend one tablespoon of fishy fertilizer to one gallon of water. Use your homemade organic herb fertilizer as a foliar spray or pour it directly into the soil.
We hope you enjoyed learning about homemade fertilizer for herbs and organic fertilization solutions. There are so many fertilizers on the market, such as liquid fertilizer, granular fertilizer, and synthetic and chemical fertilizers.
Many of these options aren’t suitable for food-grade gardening, and it’s imperative to double-check organic certifications if you’re not making your own homemade fertilizer.
Find solutions for your soil issues in your everyday life and preferred consumables. Consider composting kitchen waste, wood ash, or coffee grounds to make exceptional, nutrient-dense additives for your garden soil.
Try making a foliar spray from Epsom salt to boost essential micronutrients, or brew your own compost tea from yard leftovers. The best organic fertilizer is one that works for you and your family.

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