Your garden is an oasis. Whether it's indoors or out in the yard, a collection of plants provides a much-needed respite from all things urban and human-made, and quickly transports you to a more natural, calming setting. But if you're living a fast-paced life, you may simply lack the time to tend to all your leafy babies' needs - especially those like nutrition, which varies widely between plants and may require you to follow a set fertilization schedule. Without adequate fertilization, many plants will lack the nutrients to grow well, bud, and produce flowers. So how do you fit gardening into a busy, modern lifestyle? One answer is to opt for low-maintenance flowers that don't need commercial fertilizer.
Finding plants that thrive without store-bought plant food shouldn't be difficult. Look around you - the parks, forests, meadows, and other natural areas near you are home to a tremendous assortment of plants that get by just fine without being fed by humans. That's because these native species like false indigo and dogwood trees get all the elements they need for healthy growth right from the natural soil. There are plenty of perennial, shrub, and tree options you can plant in the yard that will find the nutrients they need without much assistance, and some even dislike rich soils. Most annuals and houseplants need a bit more help from their humans when it comes to nutrition, but even these plant categories have a few outliers that prefer to feed themselves.
Perennial Flowers That Require No Additional Fertilizer
If you're looking for garden flowers that don't need commercial fertilizer to thrive, you'll find an assortment of options among herbaceous perennials. Generally, perennials don't need supplemental nutrition if they grow in healthy soil, especially if they're native to the region. In fact, fertilizing some of these plants may cause more harm than good, as they respond to the extra nutrition by growing extremely tall, then flopping over.
For example, false indigo (Baptisia australis) is nitrogen-fixing and does not need additional plant food. It's hardy anywhere in USDA zones 3 through 9, but is native to the Eastern half of North America. Likewise, native North American asters (Symphyotrichum and Eurybia) thrive with minimal maintenance and without commercial fertilizer in USDA zones 4a to 8b. If you want to add a touch of lively orange to your garden, consider butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa). These herbaceous perennials are native to most of North America apart from the Pacific Northwest, and flourish with no additional nutrition in zones 3 through 9. Their only request is that the soil - regardless of type - drains well.
If you grow these perennials in particularly poor soil, a bit of compost applied when planting should supplement their nutritional needs. All you need to do is topdress the plants with a layer of compost after planting. However, be sure to research the nutritional needs of the individual species, as even the compost may not be beneficial.
