Why You Don't Want or Need Synthetic Fertilizer

Garden Rant is a great blog--posting about large public gardens, environmental issues, doing book reviews, and sponsoring giveways. All with a bit of irreverence and joyful sarcasm by four wonderful women. Case in point, this post about a fertilizer company that contacted them about sponsorship. Use mulch in you garden beds instead and create a thriving soil-based ecosystem that fertilizes on its own for free. If you ever wanted to know why most fertilizer is so bad--and way before it makes it to your landscape--read on.

1. The Haber-Bosch synthesis that allows you to manufacture artificial nitrogen from the air [for fertilizer production] requires intense heat and wastes colossal amounts of energy.
2. Plants often can't use these megadoses of nitrogen all in one go.  
3. The excess nitrogen turns into nitrous oxide, a powerful greenhouse gas.
4. The runoff from excess nitrogen is causing giant dead zones in our oceans [and lakes and rivers].
5. Artificial nitrogen sets up a vicious cycle that depletes the soil's ability to store carbon and nitrogen.
6. Edible plants raised on artificial nitrogen taste like complete crap.