You can try stalking a cow after dark in its' pasture, and shooting it. Then drain all of its' blood out, and dry the blood a few days. Meanwhile, cut all meat off the bones and give it to the orphanage. Then cut the bones into smaller pieces and run them through a bone grinder. Then place the dried blood in with the crushed bone, and bake it until very dry. Apply the mixture to the soil around the plants, about a cup per plant. Plants respond well to this tender care. Happy Growing !

As a Master Gardener, I always recommend a soil test if I am asked, but I am baffled by the condescending manner in which some of you answered natalija_gardener's question. She asked where she could buy a product and some of you did indeed lecture her on why she should not make her own fertilizer, told her to get the soil test (why do you assume she did not?) and generally behaved in a very unkind manner. There are many good reasons for mixing your own fertilizer and I will not go into depth about those reasons as that is not the question that was asked. This person has a right to do so and on a public forum also has the expectation that her question might be answered in a simple straightforward manner. I applaud all of those who did so!

I'm going to assume rutgers is happy with the initial replies on this and forget about the question. In other words, I consider this thread to be officially hijacked. If I am incorrect, please, rutgers, reply now or forever hold your peace. If you look around the Internet at other gardening forums, too many refuse to acknowledge organic gardening as a program that can work. Of those few that do acknowledge it, those associated with Rodale are pretty much stuck on compost being the only "approved" (by Rodale) material to use; and tilling being the best preparation for the soil. Some other forums are beyond any hope of science providing answers. They want to contradict anything scientific unless it specifically agrees with they they have been saying. I have played in both those arenas. Too often there are dips into pure fiction and just plain hope. I'm going to ignore the followers of Jerry Baker because they are usually not hurting anyone with their approach. In my previous message I was just comparing the GardenWeb forums with the other organic forums I have seen. I was not comparing with an ideal perfect universe. In my perfect universe, the universities would have equal amounts of organic certified soil and un-certifiable soil (never any DDT for example) for research. There would also be equal amounts of funding and knowledgeable researchers ready, willing, and able to get going. And there would at least be someone in academia listening to the masses to see what they have tried and are claiming to be working. The research on corn meal against crop (and lawn) fungal disease ceased when the lead guy died in the 90s. I'd like to know why greensand greens up St Aug turf on alkaline soil after a rainstorm and nothing else works. I'd like to know more about why a surface dusting of baking soda seems to kill crabgrass in 4 days (in southern lawns). I'd like to know more about why vinegar sprays kill plants but a soil drench seems to feed them. I'd like to know if/how plants can control and change the sugar chemistry they send to the soil in response to environmental stresses they receive. I'd like to know more about foliar feeding of proteins on plants and the plants' response to that. I'd like to see someone take a nutrition approach to soil microbes and the food they eat (deerslayer probably saw that one coming and is groaning right now). Another thing I've seen is unhealthy competition among organic academes. "My organic is better than your organic." We've had people here who play that game and we have all lost as the GardenWeb masters kicked them off the forums. I'm not just talking about one person, either. Some of us are too easily offended by different approaches. Deerslayer, I'm not taking your organic approach to task. I'm just trying to keep you honest. I apologize for the language I used where you thought I was denigrating your message. I can see that, but it wasn't meant that way. I'm a work in progress in many ways. Regarding hit-and-run posters: I've been accused of that, too. Sometimes our time budgets allow frequent visits here and suddenly we can be called away in the middle of one or more threads. That's just the way it is. I wish they had a way for us to subscribe to threads so we could see what's happening.

There are a couple options in Garland if you're on the east side of DFW: Don't know if the Rohde's organic products will be much less expensive, but the nursery alone is worth a visit if you are looking for natives. You can check prices and reviews for much of their Greensense line on Amazon. Edit - looks like not all products available at the brick & mortar are offered in the on-line store. There's also the old family-run Roach Feed & Seed in downtown Garland which is an authentic feedstore, but caters more these days to urban pets and gardens.