I used to have a big garden. I grew many different thing such as carrots, green beans, radishes, sweet corn, potatoes, peanuts, tomatoes, sweet peppers and hot peppers just to name a few. The fertilizer that we used was just plain old cow manure. Sometimes we went right to the barn to get it. Some times we used horse manure because we had horses. But either way it sure helped the garden grow. The compost is actually not that hard and it uses what you already have on hand, table scraps. But, if you wish to know more about the subject of fertilizer check out  http://www.myplantluv.com/2008/11/22/how-to-fertilize-your-garden.html