If you want to garden naturally and ecologically in your raised bed, you should preferably fertilize your plants with horse or cattle manure. You can get both fertilizers cheaply from the nearest farmer or the nearby riding arena.
Why is horse manure suitable for raised beds?
Horse manure is ideal as a natural fertilizer for raised beds. It contains important nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphate, magnesium and potassium and binds water in the soil. For best results, use composted horse manure and add it to the middle layer of the raised bed.
Horse manure contains everything plants need
Horse manure in particular is ideal for becoming part of a compost raised bed. However, you should only use the horse manure - but not the used straw from boxes. This also contains urine, which is very harsh and could affect the growth of the plants. Horse manure contains all the important nutrients that your crops need: These are primarily nitrogen, phosphate, magnesium and potassium. The fertilizer also binds the water in the soil (in this case in the raised bed), reducing the risk of drying out. Horse manure should always be added as one of the middle layers when (re-)setting up the raised bed in autumn.
Tip
If you want to fertilize your plants directly with horse manure, it is best not to use fresh manure, but rather composted manure.
