Why we don't use synthetic fertilizers

🌿 Why We Don’t Use Synthetic Fertilizers

Posted on: July 13, 2025
Author: Niki at Twisted Willow Acres

When people first visit the farm stand or ask about our growing practices, one of the most common questions I get is:

“Do you use your own compost in your garden?”

The answer? Yes !
Not only in our garden, but the entire property! We rotate our animals on pasture to ensure that they help us fertilize every inch!

At Twisted Willow Acres, we don’t use synthetic fertilizers at all — and here’s why that matters to us.

💧 What Are Synthetic Fertilizers?

Synthetic fertilizers are chemical-based products designed to give plants a quick dose of nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium (often labeled as NPK). They’re widely used in conventional agriculture because they’re fast, cheap, and easy to apply.

But like a lot of shortcuts, they come with trade-offs.

🌍 Why We Say No

1. They Feed Plants — Not the Soil

Healthy soil is full of life: worms, fungi, bacteria, and organic matter all working together.
Synthetic fertilizers bypass that living system. They act like junk food for plants — giving them a fast jolt without building up the soil underneath.

We want food that’s not just fast-growing, but nutrient-dense and naturally resilient. That starts with soil health.

2. They Disrupt Natural Cycles

Synthetic inputs often create dependency — plants grow weaker roots, beneficial soil organisms decline, and over time, you actually need more fertilizer to get the same results.

That’s the opposite of sustainability.

3. They Can Harm Water and Wildlife

Excess fertilizer runoff doesn’t just disappear — it can leach into waterways, causing algal blooms and harming ecosystems. We’d rather feed our plants in a way that supports the broader web of life, not damages it.

🌱 What We Do Instead

At Twisted Willow Acres, we build fertility the old-fashioned way:

• Composting food and garden waste
  
  

• Mulching with wood chips
  
  

• Using aged manure from our own pastured animals

• Intensively pasture and rotate our livestock
  
  

• Growing nitrogen-fixing crops
  
  

It’s slower. It takes more intention. But it builds up the land for the long haul — and it grows food we feel proud to eat and share.

🧑‍🌾 It’s About More Than Farming

For us, avoiding synthetic fertilizers isn’t just about growing good food — it’s about nurturing the land. We have been working for four hard years to build our soil and pastures. We have seen a significant enhancement in our ecosystem and every year our harvests are getting better and better! We want to work with nature, not against it.

If you're curious about composting, soil-building, or how to start growing naturally at home, I’ll be sharing more in future posts — because this way of growing can be for everyone.

Thanks for reading 💚
– Niki