How did people fertilize lawns , plants before chemical fertilizers?

I am imagining they probably threw out a thin layer of sifted cow manure on the lawn?? as well as around plants?





anyone know for sure?





how often and frequently did people do this?





and what about broadleaf weeds in the lawn?





Thanks for your answers!

How did people fertilize lawns , plants before chemical fertilizers?
Until around 1900 there were no lawns except for the very rich and they used to graze sheep on their swaths of grass to weed, mow and feed the lawn. Very small lawns were hand cut with scissors.





Sometime in the late 1800 the lawn mower was invented but it was loud, big, dangerous and expensive so it did not catch on at first. when they made mowers smaller and easier to use people started putting in lawns and getting rid of their veg and flower gardens.





Chemical fertilizers came into their own after WWII, around 1947 as did herbicides.





I don't believe the early lawn farmers had monocropped lawns as we see today and likely were not as phobic about clover (which is a great addition to the lawn as it adds a lot of nitrogen which grass needs). And this is one of the ways early lawns were fertilized-they were not just one or two species of plant but a large hodgepodge of pasture plants.
Reply:They used cow manure, horse manure, chicken and most all other farm animal manure. Not fresh as it would burn the plants. Most households had compost piles.


During the growing seasons about once a month is good to work a little steer into the soil.


Due to people not adding stuff back into the soil and planting the same crops in the same fields was part of the cause of the GREAT DUST BOWL that devastated the midwest.


If you don't want to use weed killer and there are too many to pull, try using boiling water directly on each weed.
Reply:they did do just that another method is to dissolve the poo in a 5 gal bucket of water and use this in a hand held watering can to put extra fertilizer directly to plants and flowers as for the broad leaf issue they had a solution for that too its called a garden hoe LOL good luck
Reply:My grandfather used a compose pile that he put all yard debrise and table scraps, coffee grounds, eggs, etc. into. He covered it with dark plastic or cloth of some kind. He'd go out and turn it ever few days with a pitch fork and shovel. It makes a natural fertilizer he'd use on the lawn, plants including flowers, shrubs, and vegetables. Don't know about the weed problem.
Reply:People used to use all sorts of things as fertiliser. ''Blood and bone meal'', farmyard manure, seaweed, limestone, etc.


Broad leafed weeds are easy. Get a selective weedkiller. Something like 24-D or Dicamba. Some weeds are resistant so check on the label to see if it will work on the weeds you have. Spray it out at the required rate and the grass will be unharmed.


Before chemicals, weeding had to be done by hand.
Reply:you only need to fertilize if you cut the grass short as you are removing its feed source in the grass blades.before chemicals arrived,no-body used any because the grass was cut less often and so was generally a bit longer.A park grass is never fed because its longer than garden lawn,weeds find it harder to germinate in longer grass which is why you need to weedkill in manicured lawn.Weeds were fewer and so dug out by hand,special tools were available for this.
Reply:In the UK, until (I think) around the mid19C, people in cities (apart from the middle and upper classes, usually didn't have gardens - just a tiny back yard... no soil. People in rural areas lived in cottages with a little ground to grow or raise their own food. Often, the cottage was tied to the agricultural job and the land (only a reasonable sized garden) was part of the 'wages', a concession.





The country-dwellers didn't have lawns (only the rich landowners), they used the ground to grow vegetables and fruit and interplanted flowers in any gaps, to brighten up the view, or for medicinal purposes... the ultimate companion planting! They also kept a few chickens and sometimes a pig and/or a cow: the manure was used to fertilise the ground.





In towns, those with gardens (and staff) might also keep a few chickens in the kitchen garden. Transport was by horses and carts or carriages, so there was plenty of manure for the taking. There were street cleaners who shovelled up the stuff onto a cart and no doubt sold it.





Gardening didn't really become a hobby, among the working class, until the beginning of the 20C, when it was encourage as one way of civilising the masses.
Reply:My father was a gardener and used to collect comfrey leaves and let them rot down in his water butt, this evidently makes o good all purpose fertilizer and no seed is introduced .
Reply:In the good old days...we're going back to 1949, we had our milk delivered by horse and cart, and there were always a couple of people at the ready with a shovel...need I say more?
Reply:dun, and weed pullers.

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