If you're somebody who loves planting and have your own private garden in the backyard then you are probably very familiar with fertilizer. If you want to plant fruits, vegetables, trees, flowers, etc., you're going to need fertilizer. Without it your plants won't grow and what's the point of having your own garden in the backyard of your property if it doesn't grow? So make sure you use fertilizer when planting.

For those of you who are novices to the world of gardening and are wondering what exactly is fertilizer let us help you. The word fertilizer is defined in the dictionary as: "a chemical or natural substance added to soil or land to increase its fertility." Plants need chemical elements and nutrients to grow and survive and they obtain those nutrients from fertilizer. Three of the most important of those are potassium, phosphorus and nitrogen and provide plants with basic building blocks.

A plant will have a very difficult time growing in your piece of property's backyard without phosphorous, potassium and nitrogen because it won't be able to produce the pieces it needs. Compare it to a road repair crew not having any asphalt. Plants can get natural nutrients that will provide them with their needed doses of nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorous but they can only get those from dead or decaying plants. We imagine you don't want a beautiful garden near a bunch of dead flowers. No home owner would probably want that.

This is where fertilizer comes to the rescue. For the plants to grow they need these nutrients and the nutrients we mentioned can be found in fertilizer. You can go to your local hardware or garden store and pick up a bag or two of fertilizer that you can use when planting. Fertilizer provides the right amount of each nutrient that ensures your plant will grow. If you're unsure of how much you need or which fertilizer brand is the best just ask somebody in the store or talk to a a local landscaping company, and they'll be able to recommend what brand they use.

Stats today show that anywhere between 40 to 60% of all crop yields are attributed to fertilizer use so you have nothing to worry about when using fertilizer for your plants. There are also organic fertilizers available just in case you fear that fertilizers aren't natural to gardening. We hope that you now know what fertilizer is and how the use of fertilizer when planting or gardening will help your plants grow. Plants need to eat, just like humans, so go out and feed them some fertilizer.