Practical Gardening
LAST week was a cold and wet one, god love those poor plants that have already decided to tentatively put out some fresh soft spring growth. According to folklore, old wives tales and my father, when the blackthorn is in bloom we always get a cold spell. A ‘ blackthorn winter ‘ is the traditional term used and from my observations there certainly appears to be some truth in the adage.
Despite the cold weather now is a good time to start to think about feeding your garden and will give a much needed boost to those poor chilled garden plants. With the lawn I would hold off for a few weeks yet but in the flower borders I would get started now.
It is recommended to fertilise feed all garden plants once a year and I personally do it twice, once in late March and again at the end of June. Our generally wet weather conditions add to the problem of the leaching of nutrients from the soil before the plants have time to take full advantage of them. In addition to applying a fertiliser organic mulching is very beneficial, not only can it boost the nutrient levels it will improve your soils structure and quality which fertilising alone won’t do. Your own compost is good but best of all is well rotted farmyard manure, FYM for short. FYM seems to have plant health properties of miracle proportions and can lift an ailing plant. It is advisable to keep the manure a couple of inches away from plant stems to prevent scorching if the manure is very strong. This type of mulching should be done annually along with the use of fertilisers to help keep your garden plants in top condition.
When feeding your plants with a fertiliser you are applying three main elements. Put simply these elements are nitrogen for leafy growth, phosphorus for root growth, potassium for friut and flowers. The percentage of these elements are shown on packaging in that order as number like 7:6:17 or 5:5:5. Fertilisers come in two main forms, organic derived from plants or animals such as seaweed, poultry pellets, fish, blood