Soil & Fertiliser

When we talk about sustainable gardening, the area of potting soil and nutrient supply has, alongside plant protection, among the most significant impacts. This is where it is decided which substances we bring into our garden from outside - and thus how large the ecological footprint becomes.

That there are hardly any reasons left today to use peat-based soil in a private garden has by now even got through to the ministries responsible. With two further short examples we would like to point out less obvious problems that are often associated with products in this area:

• at first glance it seems to make no difference where the nitrogen in fertiliser comes from.
  If you look into it more closely, you learn that for synthetic fertiliser it is extracted from the ambient air with very high energy expenditure. The conversion into ammonia takes place via the Haber-Bosch process, which is responsible for approx. 1.4% of world energy demand and 3 to 5% of CO2 emissions. The ammonia obtained in this way is in turn needed 80% for synthetic fertiliser. How much energy is used here - which can also be released again - became visible in the sad explosion in the port of Beirut.
  Those who can should switch to organic fertilisers with natural nitrogen sources, and not only for the sake of their plants and soil life.
  ​more on this: 'Better to import ammonia (or nitrogen) instead of hydrogen'
• a common source of phosphorus - soft rock phosphate - proved through problems with an overflow basin in the USA in 2021 that it is worthwhile to take a look at the ingredients of fertilisers here too. Even products advertised as organic and particularly sustainable often contain this highly problematic ingredient. It does not help that some of them are free of animal components - which, by the way, is not at all provided for by nature.

In this section we have put together exclusively ecologically compatible products for you. We deliver all of them 'free of charge to your door', including plants contained in the same shipment.