What’s Wrong with Fertilizer?

And Other Yard Questions

This spring, as I’ve had time to spend in our yard, I’ve felt a little paralyzed by all the messages surrounding environmental pollution and yard maintenance:

A before picture of the weeds. I have since tried a vinegar, soap, and water solution.

• Fertilizers are “poisoning water bodies, plants, animals and humans.”[i]

• “Some pesticides may be carcinogens.”[ii]

• Herbicides (aka weed killers) have “negative environmental and human health impacts.”[iii]

And these are from what I’d consider to be the more reputable sources. You can find far more damaging statements about pretty much every product I’m used to buying if you search for it.

So here’s where I’m at: weeds are growing relentlessly in my yard and gnats are eating up some of my struggling wildflower stalks—all because I don’t know what to use or where to buy it. It’s time, then, to dig in and find answers: What’s wrong with these products, and what is safe to use in my yard?

How to Feed Your Plants

Let me start by saying, I’m not writing this with the large-scale farmer in mind.[iv] I’m writing with someone like me in mind—someone with a yard that has room for a garden bed or two, someone who’s dabbling in growing their own food or herbs or flowers and who needs a little help understanding the terms and basic ideas behind what’s ecologically safe to use for plant growth and what isn’t.

The raised bed in our back yard. Made from recycled wood, this bed is mostly herbs with some tomatoes.

What’s the Problem?

In a word, synthetic fertilizers. An article by the UN Environment Programme explains this in a lot more detail, but basically, since its development in the early 1900s, synthetic (or artificial) fertilizers have become increasingly popular because of their ability to “drive an unprecedented agricultural expansion and help feed a fast-growing world.”[v] Yet their pros have come at a cost.

The way these fertilizers are made (along with many other lifestyle choices we’ll have to tackle in other posts) has resulted in an abundant release of nitrous oxide, which “is 300 times more potent at warming the atmosphere than carbon dioxide.”[vi] While some nitrogen is okay—even “essential for life on Earth”—“in excess, it is a dangerous pollutant and is poisoning water bodies, plants, animals and humans.”[vii]

What’s the Alternative?

Organic material. This is the simplest way to put it. Instead of using man-made, synthetically derived (artificial) fertilizer, use actual fertilizer made from naturally occurring materials, such as compost.

A very science-y report published in the Encyclopedia of Sustainable Technologies, expounds on this, explaining that “organic fertilizers are naturally occurring compounds produced from waste matter or by-products,” and they include “animal manure, compost, sewage sludge, food processing wastes, and municipal biosolids.”[viii]

I think the key word here is organic. Aside from starting your own compost pile (which I’m trying—read more here!), when you shop for fertilizers at Lowe’s or Home Depot or Walmart, pay attention to whether they say “organic.” In fact, pay attention to this when you buy your groceries too. Organic food comes from organic farms (meaning they aren’t using artificial fertilizers, pesticides, or herbicides of any kind).

This is better for the environment and better for you.[ix]

How to Handle Weeds & Pests

Pesticides and herbicides (aka weed killer) are tackled together in a scientific report titled “Health Effects of Herbicides and Its Current Removal Strategies.” Written by eight international scientists, this report identifies herbicides as “a type of pesticide designed to target and control unwanted plant growth.”[x]

So we’ll tackle these two items together as well.

What’s the Problem?

The problem with both, just like we saw with fertilizers, is the abundance of (again) synthetic sprays and chemicals we’re using. These man-made chemicals do their job—they’re killing pests and weeds. However, they’re doing it too well.

Herbicide is chemically and photochemically stable in mild conditions making it difficult to be degraded . . . it accumulates in soil and causes adverse effects on soil life for decades. The heavy use of herbicide can expose non-target plants, animals, and humans with profound effects on ecosystem functions and microbial communities in the environment.[xi]

While we may intend to kill weeds and unwanted pests only, we’re causing undue harm to other plants and animals—possibly for decades. Not to mention harming ourselves. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency,

Some [pesticides] . . . affect the nervous system. Others may irritate the skin or eyes. Some pesticides may be carcinogens. Others may affect the hormone or endocrine system in the body.[xii]

What’s the Alternative?

Someone who’s far more knowledgeable than me—environmental toxicologist and associate teaching professor in the Earth Commons Institute, Jesse Meiller—mentions opting for “narrow-spectrum pesticides.”[xiii] In other words, whatever pest you’re up against, find a spray that kills only that pest. This is preferable to broad-spectrum pesticides, which kill an array of species without discrimination.[xiv]

A mix of olive oil, dish soap, and water has helped with gnats. Just don't spray your blooms directly!

On a practical level, this might mean making a call to your pest control provider, asking what kinds of products they’re using, and letting them know of your preference to switch to narrow-spectrum pesticides. When I checked on our pest control provider, turns out they offer something even better: Green Choice Pest Control derived from plants!

For smaller pests, I’ve had recent success from concocting natural remedies at home. For example, for the fungus gnats I found on some of my potted plants, I tried a mix of olive oil, dish soap, and water (here’s a YouTube video if you’re interested), and it’s working! Spraying them once didn’t do the trick, but after a few days in a row (and moving the plants so they could get full sun exposure), I’m not seeing any more gnats.

My next experiment has been a vinegar-soap mix on my weeds. I will let you know how that goes. Tons of other natural solutions exist that will not only spare the environment from harsh chemicals, but save you money. That’s because they require things you probably already have: white vinegar, garlic, chili pepper, coffee grounds, soap, etc.

As I find favorite solutions, I will share them with you. I hope you will share yours too! The point here is, we aren’t without options and—good news—what’s safer for the environment is healthier and at times even more affordable than their harmful alternatives.

Here’s to greener gardening! Happy spring. 💛

Key Takeaways

• When it comes to fertilizers and food, choose organic materials.

• When it comes to weed killers and pesticides, opt for natural remedies.

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Notes

[i] “Fertilizers: Challenges and Solutions,” UN Environment Programme, November 9, 2020, https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/story/fertilizers-challenges-and-solutions.

[ii] “Human Health Issues Related to Pesticides,” U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, last updated September 26, 2024, https://www.epa.gov/pesticide-science-and-assessing-pesticide-risks/human-health-issues-related-pesticides.

[iii] Rozidaini Mohd Ghazi et al., “Health Effects of Herbicides and Its Current Removal Strategies,” Bioengineered 14, no. 1 (September 25, 2023): 2259526, https://doi.org/10.1080/21655979.2023.2259526.

[iv] If you are a large-scale farmer, I encourage you to check out this page, which has several ideas on how to improve practices and reduce nitrogen loss into the atmosphere: https://www.epa.gov/nutrientpollution/sources-and-solutions-agriculture.

[v] “Fertilizers: Challenges and Solutions.”

[vi] “Four Reasons Why the World Needs to Limit Nitrogen Pollution,” UN Environment Programme, January 16, 2023, https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/story/four-reasons-why-world-needs-limit-nitrogen-pollution.

[vii] “Fertilizers: Challenges and Solutions.”

[viii] “Organic Fertilizer,” Encyclopedia of Sustainable Technologies (2024), https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/organic-fertilizer#:~:text=Commonly%20used%20organic%20fertilizers%20include,release%20nutrients%20to%20soils%20gradually.

[ix] Organic food means no artificial sprays or compounds for your body to digest. However, they can be expensive! If you can’t afford all organic food, I encourage you at least to avoid the “dirty dozen.”

[x] Ghazi et al., “Health Effects of Herbicides.”

[xi] Ghazi et al., “Health Effects of Herbicides.”

[xii] “Human Health Issues Related to Pesticides,” U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, last updated September 26, 2024, https://www.epa.gov/pesticide-science-and-assessing-pesticide-risks/human-health-issues-related-pesticides.

[xiii] “Unearthing a Better Way to Use Pesticides with an Environmental Toxicologist,” Georgetown University (blog), November 20, 2023, https://www.georgetown.edu/news/unearthing-a-better-way-to-use-pesticides-with-an-environmental-toxicologist/.

[xiv] Read more about broad-spectrum vs. narrow-spectrum pesticides here: https://core.psep.cce.cornell.edu/Tutorials/core-tutorial/module13/index.asp.