Why you should, and shouldn't, use fish fertilizer

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Fish fertilizer is great. Plants love it. It's organic and safe. It's inexpensive and you can buy it at your local Home Depot. But I don't use much of it, and I'll tell you why.

To say it stinks is an understatement. Just opening the cap makes me want to retch (sorry about that!). And the smell lingers. If you use it on your garden, your garden will smell like rotting fish for days. Plants love that, people really don't. And, of course, it's irresistible to my dog, who has lived here with me in the Tropical Paradise for ten years and never, ever digs. Unless I use fish fertilizer. Then that awful smell, which must be absolutely heaven to her, is more than she can resist. So I did it once in the backyard. Once.

But this summer I am plant-sitting some potted plants. They're out in the courtyard, and in pots that are way too high for my dog to get into. So I looked under the sink and got out the fish fertilizer, which I haven't used for years. Yep, still stinks. But plants love it, and it works great. So if you have a place with plants that 1) isn't where people have to put up with the stink, which lingers for days 2) is not accessible to your dog then fish fertilizer is a great choice.

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