I use chicken manure pellets and a bit of BFB. My routine is (from about now) to start tidying / weeding / cutting back. As each (eg) 3m x 4m area is cleared I sprinkle over a handful of a mix of the fertiliser and finally a 3-4” mulch of homemade garden compost.
I don’t produce enough compost to dress the whole garden at that thickness, so I concentrate on doing what I can properly and the rest of the garden just gets a bit of fertiliser ’tickled in’ with a hand fork. Next year I’ll put the thick mulch on the areas that didn’t get it this year. That sort of rotation works on my heavy clay soil.
Heaven is ... sitting in the garden with a G&T and a cat while watching the sun go down
According to the technical data I've just read, Growmore is a balanced fertiliser 7/7/7 eg equal quantities of minerals and is based on limestone. Apart from not breathing in any dust from it, it is apparently harmless. I believe the Min of Ag formulated it during WW11 to help with the Dig for Victory effort.
I use it occasionally as it's cheap and easy to use. Can't stand the foul smell of pelleted chicken manure plus we have badgers around.
I find garden centre fertilisers to be quite expensive. I learnt of yaramila complex fertiliser when visiting a commercial nursery last year, and since have managed to source a 25kg bag for 25 gbp. It yields itself to being used for everything from lawns to flower bed and veg patches, as its quite balanced (12-11-18) with added micro nutrients.
You can also make your own - nettles have lots of nitrogen and can be soaked in a bucket of water (with a lid on for the smell) then strained and diluted to make a very good feed for leafy plants and comfrey leaves make a very good feed for flowering and fruiting plants.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
I don’t produce enough compost to dress the whole garden at that thickness, so I concentrate on doing what I can properly and the rest of the garden just gets a bit of fertiliser ’tickled in’ with a hand fork. Next year I’ll put the thick mulch on the areas that didn’t get it this year. That sort of rotation works on my heavy clay soil.
I'm in the same boat mulch-wise, so that's my plan as well.
You can also make your own - nettles have lots of nitrogen and can be soaked in a bucket of water (with a lid on for the smell) then strained and diluted to make a very good feed for leafy plants and comfrey leaves make a very good feed for flowering and fruiting plants.
Yes I may try the comfrey trick later on in the year, thanks.
Yes BUT if you use BFB or chicken manure in an area where there are foxes or where your dog goes they will dig up all your plants trying to get at it. I had to change to Growmore when I found the borders had become a feast for foxes. I'm not sure if the badgers didn't like it, too!
Yes, this is one reason why I was considering Growmore aswell, as I've heard cats+foxes (I have both!) will attack your borders if you use blood-fish-bone. So they'll do the same if you use types of manure aswell?
We’ve got lots of cats and foxes in suburbia, none have ever dug up anything I put BFB on.
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I don’t produce enough compost to dress the whole garden at that thickness, so I concentrate on doing what I can properly and the rest of the garden just gets a bit of fertiliser ’tickled in’ with a hand fork. Next year I’ll put the thick mulch on the areas that didn’t get it this year. That sort of rotation works on my heavy clay soil.
I use it occasionally as it's cheap and easy to use. Can't stand the foul smell of pelleted chicken manure plus we have badgers around.
Yes I may try the comfrey trick later on in the year, thanks.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.