I don't overfeed artificially either @punkdoc. If the soil's in good nick, shrubs and trees don't really need help, so that's where mulching comes in. I occasionally use a bit of BF&Bone in spring as a general feed - but I don't always remember to do it. I used to use liquid seaweed now and again for foliage plants, but I haven't bothered with that for a while. Tomato food for clems and heavy flowerers like the sweet peas, and of course - the tomatoes. I have some Comfrey in the garden now, so I'll be using that as a feed too, once it's big enough to pick.
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
I feed plants in pots because fertilisers in composts/planting media have a limited life and they need the extra oomph. Other than that I limit extra feeding to things like roses, clematis and the veggies but even in the veggie plot I rely more on mulching to keep the soil healthy and retain moisture than I do on fertilisers. The exception is the tomatoes and curcubits which I want to crop as well as they can.
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 think a lot of our fertiliser habits are passed to us from professional gardeners who mostly operate in different environments to your average householder. I know that much of my training concentrated on commercial growing and there, the importance of nutrient levels in pots makes the difference between success and failure. The off-shoot of this is the temptation to apply similar rules in the open environment, when in practice the amounts of many elements actually required are minuscule.
We also mustn’t underestimate the influence of the companies selling us the fertilisers of course.
These days, having only my slice of heaven to deal with, I use very little fertiliser around ornamentals. There’s nowt I can’t get from manure or compost. My hedge runs behind my borders and the cuttings are left out of sight or piled up for the hedgehogs. I’ve always practiced chop and drop just because it seemed intuitive and all that Amazon brown packaging gets composted with the green stuff. My bark paths get raked up every 3 years, replaced and used as mulch.
it’s a personal thing but I don’t like to see ‘picked clean’ gardens. They just feel a bit sterile although I concede that some would think my methods untidy and lazy. When it’s all exploded into life however, there’s not a bit of soil to be seen anywhere.
I feed plants in pots because fertilisers in composts/planting media have a limited life and they need the extra oomph. Other than that I limit extra feeding to things like roses, clematis and the veggies but even in the veggie plot I rely more on mulching to keep the soil healthy and retain moisture than I do on fertilisers. The exception is the tomatoes and curcubits which I want to crop as well as they can.
But if you return everything from the garden back to the garden, does anything need extra feed. In a garden situaton tried before vs after? Can anyone see any difference. Or are you just doing what you have been told.
location: Surrey Hills, England, ex-woodland acidic sand. "Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
I don't do the chop-and-drop thing either. Too messy for my small-ish garden. My plants growing in the ground get a sprinkling of chicken poo pellets or BFB a few times a year and the container plants get tomato feed at the same time as the tomatoes in the summer. I mulch with homemade compost when an area is clear enough, and add a bit bone meal or BFB (depending on time of year) for new shrub/perennial planting.
Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
@Obelixx Thank you very much for going to the trouble of finding and forwarding that article. It makes very interesting reading.
However, I'm a bit confused because it says "In contrast to mulching, the incorporation or ‘digging-in’ of woody
materials into the soil can create temporary nutrient deficiency issues.
This is because the material is being mixed into deeper layers of the
soil where plants feed. Here the material stimulates the growth of soil
microbes, which then take up or ‘lock-up’ nutrients (typically nitrogen)
leading to a reduced availability for plants for up to two years."
But didn't you write that the RHS had done tests that say nitrogen depletion is not actually a problem ? Here they say it is.
Interesting stuff about phytotoxic compounds. Who'd have thought ?
When there's always biscuits in the tin, where's the fun in biscuits ?
I've had time to read the link. I think it adds more questions than it answers.
It is interesting than plants can and do store elements if there is an excess. It is also true that some N, P, & K is available in most soils and composts. If you use high NPK quantities alongside rotting vegetation. that will confuse the issue.
Even one element is complicated. Take nitrogen: is ammomium, better than nitrate generally or for some plants? How does urea stack up? Some sources say avoid urea with orchids, other say this is not true. How does garden compost compare in terms of nitate, ammonium and amines/amides? Many active plant chemicals are complicated nitrogen-containing heterocycles than can have pharmaceutical properties.
I was interested in the RHS link to see that it is unclear if cyanide releasing plants like cherry laurel might cause problems. In my youth, the Arthur Mees encyclopaedia recommended crushed laurel leaves that releas HCN to euthanise butterfly specimesn before pinning and mounting. Another time, another place.
location: Surrey Hills, England, ex-woodland acidic sand. "Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
Plant roots grow and seek out foods and water. Sometimes helped by bacteria and fungi, sometimes helped by their own secretions that break down complicate chemicals into simple ones they can absorb and use.
Let’s assume that all the right chemicals are there already A gardener’s first priority is to ensure that the soil conditions are right for the roots to find and absorb it.
What is needed is to ensure that the soil has a texture that is open enough to allow water to pass through easily without getting stagnant, and have enough oxygen available for the roots to breathe. That should come from a balance of stones, sand, silt, clay, well-decomposed plant material (humus)and recently-arrived dead material. An experienced gardener will recognise this immediately but it is difficult to describe in words.
A soil-based compost like John Innes is a good quality to aim for. A general purpose compost represents the other extreme of a peat-like vegetable derived material.
If you get everything right, and keep it so, no extra fertilising should be needed.
location: Surrey Hills, England, ex-woodland acidic sand. "Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
Whilst 'the_gravity_man" is musing, I am more grandiosely carrying out "Gedankenexperimente".
Imagine one plant, say a rose, all the cuttings, leaves and flowers that are cut or fall during the year are returned. Would that be enough to feed the plant for a year? Not necessarily the first year.
The well-known product Toprose was formulated in just such a way. As best I can remember they examined what compounds and elements were contained in a rose and created the formulation around that.
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
Posts
I occasionally use a bit of BF&Bone in spring as a general feed - but I don't always remember to do it. I used to use liquid seaweed now and again for foliage plants, but I haven't bothered with that for a while. Tomato food for clems and heavy flowerers like the sweet peas, and of course - the tomatoes.
I have some Comfrey in the garden now, so I'll be using that as a feed too, once it's big enough to pick.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
We also mustn’t underestimate the influence of the companies selling us the fertilisers of course.
These days, having only my slice of heaven to deal with, I use very little fertiliser around ornamentals. There’s nowt I can’t get from manure or compost. My hedge runs behind my borders and the cuttings are left out of sight or piled up for the hedgehogs. I’ve always practiced chop and drop just because it seemed intuitive and all that Amazon brown packaging gets composted with the green stuff. My bark paths get raked up every 3 years, replaced and used as mulch.
it’s a personal thing but I don’t like to see ‘picked clean’ gardens. They just feel a bit sterile although I concede that some would think my methods untidy and lazy. When it’s all exploded into life however, there’s not a bit of soil to be seen anywhere.
But if you return everything from the garden back to the garden, does anything need extra feed. In a garden situaton tried before vs after? Can anyone see any difference. Or are you just doing what you have been told.
"Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
I've had time to read the link. I think it adds more questions than it answers.
It is interesting than plants can and do store elements if there is an excess. It is also true that some N, P, & K is available in most soils and composts. If you use high NPK quantities alongside rotting vegetation. that will confuse the issue.
Even one element is complicated. Take nitrogen: is ammomium, better than nitrate generally or for some plants? How does urea stack up? Some sources say avoid urea with orchids, other say this is not true. How does garden compost compare in terms of nitate, ammonium and amines/amides? Many active plant chemicals are complicated nitrogen-containing heterocycles than can have pharmaceutical properties.
I was interested in the RHS link to see that it is unclear if cyanide releasing plants like cherry laurel might cause problems. In my youth, the Arthur Mees encyclopaedia recommended crushed laurel leaves that releas HCN to euthanise butterfly specimesn before pinning and mounting. Another time, another place.
"Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
Plant roots grow and seek out foods and water. Sometimes helped by bacteria and fungi, sometimes helped by their own secretions that break down complicate chemicals into simple ones they can absorb and use.
Let’s assume that all the right chemicals are there already A gardener’s first priority is to ensure that the soil conditions are right for the roots to find and absorb it.
What is needed is to ensure that the soil has a texture that is open enough to allow water to pass through easily without getting stagnant, and have enough oxygen available for the roots to breathe. That should come from a balance of stones, sand, silt, clay, well-decomposed plant material (humus)and recently-arrived dead material. An experienced gardener will recognise this immediately but it is difficult to describe in words.
A soil-based compost like John Innes is a good quality to aim for. A general purpose compost represents the other extreme of a peat-like vegetable derived material.
If you get everything right, and keep it so, no extra fertilising should be needed.
"Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
As best I can remember they examined what compounds and elements were contained in a rose and created the formulation around that.
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.