Okay, let me tell you about this thing I tried, what my buddy Bill calls his “perfect fertilizer”. My tomato plants were looking real sad this year, kinda yellow and just… blah. Bill, he’s always got some trick up his sleeve from his grandad or whoever, swears by this homemade mix. So, I thought, why not? Couldn’t hurt, right?
Getting the Gunk Together
First off, Bill gave me his list. Wasn’t too complicated, thankfully. He told me to start saving my old coffee grounds. Easy enough, I drink enough coffee. Then, crushed up eggshells. Had to make sure they were rinsed out good and properly crunched small. The weird part was banana peels. He said to chop ’em up tiny. So, I gathered all that stuff for about a week. Kept it in an old bucket in the shed.
Mixing it was… interesting. It didn’t smell great, let me tell you. Just kinda earthy and a bit funky from the peels. Bill said to just tumble it all together in the bucket. So, I put the lid on tight and rolled the bucket around the yard for a bit. Felt kinda silly doing it, but hey, gotta follow the steps.
Putting it to Work
Alright, so I had this bucket of weird-smelling mix. Bill’s instructions were pretty clear: don’t just dump it on top. He said to dig a little trench, like a circle, a few inches away from the base of each tomato plant. Not too deep, maybe a couple of inches down.
So, I grabbed my trowel and carefully dug these little moats around my sad tomatoes. Then I spooned in the fertilizer mix, maybe a cup or two for each plant, spreading it evenly in the trench. After that, I just covered it back up with the soil I’d dug out. Simple enough. Then just watered them like usual.
The Waiting Game
Now came the hard part: waiting. Gardening teaches you patience, that’s for sure. For the first few days, nothing much happened. I kept checking them, probably too much. Still looked a bit yellowish.
But maybe a week, week and a half later, I started noticing something. The newer leaves coming in at the top looked… greener. Like, a proper deep green, not that pale sickly color. It wasn’t overnight magic, but it was definitely a change.
- Checked daily (impatient, I know).
- Watered normally.
- Looked for small changes.
So, Was it Perfect?
Well, “perfect” is a strong word. But did it help? Yeah, I really think it did. The plants definitely perked up. They got greener, seemed a bit stronger, and eventually, I got a decent bunch of tomatoes off them. Way better than they were looking before I started.
It wasn’t like some miracle cure that made them grow giant overnight, but it gave them a real boost. And it was basically free, just using kitchen scraps. So, yeah, I’d say Bill’s mix was pretty good. Definitely worth the slightly smelly bucket and the effort of digging those little trenches. I’ll probably do it again next year. Maybe start saving the stuff earlier.
