Perhaps the most important key to growing healthy plants through natural gardening is making sure that every plant has the required nutrients and chemical elements. There are 16 chemical elements that are recognized as essential to plant growth. The primary three are: nitrogen (N), phosphate (P), and potassium (K). These particular chemical elements are most recognizable to gardeners in the form of three numbers that appear on boxes of chemical fertilizer like this: 5-10-10. This means that the fertilizer contains 5% nitrogen, 10% phosphate, and also 10% potassium.

Following these three elements in significance and rounding out the six macro nutrients are magnesium, sulfur, and calcium. These three are often called secondary macro nutrients since they are not quite as essential to your garden as the previously mentioned primary macro nutrients. Although most chemical fertilizers contain the primary three macro nutrients (nitrogen, phosphate, and potassium) and perhaps a few of the secondary ones, they fall short in the area of necessary micro nutrients. Seven important micro nutrients, also known as trace elements, include iron, boron, zinc, manganese, molybdenum, copper, and chlorine.

Obviously, these seven chemical elements are still very important to plant growth, but the fact that they are called trace elements means that they will be needed by plants in fewer quantities than the macro nutrients will be. Scientists are still having trouble determining exactly what the benefits of each trace element are and each one's individual importance, but the one thing that is certain is that the seven micro nutrients listed above have a considerable impact upon plant growth.

However, the importance of these specific micro nutrient elements lies in the fact that, if ph levels are above or below the appropriate average (between 5.0 and 7.0) in the soil, then the micro nutrients will be present in either insufficient or more-than-sufficient (toxic) amounts. Unlike natural fertilizers, chemical fertilizers often lack sufficient or balanced amounts of these seven micro nutrients. So which type of fertilizer delivers the best and most widespread assortment of nutrients required for the healthy growth of garden plants?

Well, to be quite short, it would have to be the type of fertilizer that provides the soil with both, the micro nutrients and the trace elements (micronutrients), in amounts appropriate with what your plants need. This means that there has to be an ideal balance, with no deficiency or over-sufficiency with regards to each nutrient that helps plants grow.

The final three elements, having mentioned 13 thus far (not counting selenium) are hydrogen, oxygen, and carbon. These three are the basic building blocks for plant life, with oxygen and hydrogen combining to form the water that is so essential to life in general and more specifically to the ability of plants to acquire their nutrients (most notably nitrogen).

The best way to assure that your garden, both plants and soil, has a healthy array of all 16 of these chemical elements for its benefit is to use a natural fertilizer which helps replace all plant nutrients, and not just some of them. This way you can make sure that your plants have full nourishment with a fertilizer that goes beyond chemical additives and instead provides your garden with a broad spectrum of not only the primary elements, but also the essentially important micro nutrients.