Your lawn and garden simply don’t need chemical fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides. In fact, these chemicals weaken your plants. What your plants need is properly managed soil, which is not as difficult or mysterious as it sounds. Good Soil Management Reduces the Need for Fertilizers and Pesticides In the vegetable and fruit garden, different plants have different needs. Some, like sweet corn and broccoli, require lots of nitrogen; others very little. But plants also need potassium and phosphorous for healthy root, seed, flower, and fruit development. Fortunately, compost made from kitchen scraps, yard waste, and composted animal manure is in most cases all that is required for any plant to thrive, because it delivers all three of these elements along with many others, including bacteria and fungi to nourish the soil food web. If your garden soil has been decimated by years of chemical dependency or subjected to extreme weather events like flood or drought, additional nutrients may be required for …