On Fertilization

I went into this whole gardening thing hoping that I wouldn't have to fertilize the garden. I mean, I started out with good, nutritious soil, added a nitrogen-fixing cover crop that got tilled into the soil in the spring, and the little bit of compost that we had made over the winter also got tilled into the soil in spring. That seems like a good amount of food, and the compost and cover crop should slowly break down. That was the theory anyway. After watching weeds that I've killed and just left on top of the dirt, I've realized that vegetation actually breaks down really quickly and all the stuff that got tilled in during the spring is probably long since decomposed. On top of that, the sheer volume of plant material that my garden has produced so far makes me think that most of the easily accessible nutrients must have been mostly used up (at least in the Potato, Pea, Pak Choi, and Arugula beds). So its time to think about getting some fertilizer.

If this were a standard garden, I could go pick up some industrial NPK chemical fertilizer, but we try not to do that sort of thing here on the homestead. If we had some sort of a regenerative, beyond organic farming system with chickens wandering through the garden picking bugs and turning them into their own version of fertilizer and the overflow from a fish pond drip-watering the garden, I probably wouldn't have to worry about fertilizer. Sadly, that is not the case. So what sort of nutritious, easily available, relatively cheap organic fertilizer is available to homesteads like this one? I've been thinking about it, and this is the list I've come up with:

- My own vegetable compost: Its not ready, and there isn't much of it. We put more stuff in there several times a week and it keeps rotting down to almost nothing. I may just build up a year's worth and till it into the soil next spring.

- Composted cow manure: Moderately nutritious, but its available from multiple stores nearby in easily transported bags, and the cost is pretty reasonable.

- Composted chicken manure: Supposedly highly nutritious, but I haven't seen it available anywhere locally. I've found it online for not too much money per bag, but the shipping cost is rather prohibitive

- Worm compost. I've found one local producer, but I'm not sure how easy it would be to get my hands on it. Also not sure how nutritious it would be. I guess that probably depends on what they feed the worms, but I suspect it would be similar to regular vegetable compost.

- Bone Meal, Blood Meal, Fish Meal, combination organic fertilizers. I can find all this stuff online, but the shipping isn't cheap. I might be able to find some of it locally if I look hard enough. But it kinda seems like cheating to me. Its organic, but all this stuff isn't going to be made by any small local places, it will be made at some massive slaughterhouse in the midwest.

I've also been seeing a lot of stuff about "compost tea". Basically you steep worm or other types of compost in water, then water your plants with that liquid. That seems kind of silly to me. Why wouldn't you just put compost on top of the soil, and then you get compost tea every time it rains. Plus, you make sure all the organic material eventually makes its way into the dirt. Am I missing something about compost tea?

I'm thinking that I'll probably get a couple bags of composted organic cow manure for now because its cheap and easy, and I'll keep my eyes open for the local worm compost or chicken manure.