Alfalfa Pellets

Alfalfa pellets are one of the best kept secrets for your garden. The pellets are an excellent source of nitrogen. And... they add to the organic matter to your soil. Alfalfa has a nutrient content of 3-0-2. It's a light fertilizer and won't burn your turf or garden plants.

I first learned about alfalfa from a rose grower. Those "rose" people have been using alfalfa around their roses for a long time and forgot to mention it to the rest of us.

Alfalfa is an all-purpose fertilizer and soil conditioner. I use alfalfa on the bit of turf that I have left and on all my gardens. The pellets are an easy way to add organic matter to your soil while topping up the nitrogen. On turf, I rake the pellets in. Otherwise, just as with conventional fertilizer, you will end up with patches of deep green. A spring addition of alfalfa and corn meal gluten is a great way to get your lawn off to a good start in the spring.

The pellets are very compacted and are small and hard in the package but one good rain or watering will fluff them up. They remind me a bit of Canada Geese, if you get what I mean. They can be raked or worked into the soil and are invisible in no time.

Finding alfalfa was a bit difficult at first. When I began using alfalfa, I bought bags of rabbit pellets at the pet store. Last year, our horticultural society found a source in Alberta. We had a pallet of bags shipped to one of the members and we divvied up from there. Now President's Choice is packaging alfalfa pellets as one of its Green products. My neighbourhood Zehrs carried them this year.

By the way, if you don't want to spread the alfalfa pellets, you can make alfalfa tea.