Plant feed made from your garden
Can’t get out to buy plant feeds? Follow Sally Nex and make your own, to boost flowers and veg production right now – for free
Did you know there’s a whole garden centre right by your back door? No, this isn’t a shopping-deprived gardener’s fantasy brought on by too long in lockdown. All over your house and garden you’ll find everyday items you can upcycle into gardening staples, from cardboard box plant pots to hazel rod beanpoles.
Easiest of all, though, are home-made fertilisers and pesticides, made from just about anything as long as it’s organic. It’s a planetfriendly way to garden, big on recycling, plasticfree, and with none of the high carbon footprint involved in making and transporting chemicals.
Over the next two issues we’re sharing our favourite easy, home-made recipes for products that keep plants healthy, banish pests and boost harvests – all using materials you already have to hand. This month it’s all about keeping your plants well fed and performing at their best.
If you make your own compost, you’re already familiar with home-made plant food. But target the natural nutrient content of leaves and organic matter more precisely and you can inject specialist elements exactly where they’re needed. You can feed slow release – for example, using potassium-rich comfrey leaves as a mulch, to break down gradually – or provide an instant boost by extracting the goodness into liquid form. And it’s free!
Recipes Comfrey feed
Plant a comfrey patch and you need never buy another bottle of tomato feed. This perennial grows anywhere and provides an endless supply of lush green leaves for making a liquid feed full of potassium, the magic ingredient plants use to make flowers and fruit.
Ordinary comfrey spreads like mad, so use the variety ‘Bocking 14’, which doesn’t set viable seed so stays put. Harvest leaves while young, at 20-30cm long, wearing gloves as the bristly surfaces may irritate skin. They regrow quickly and you can expect to make four or five batches of feed a year. Use fresh, as it can ferment if stored too long, and dilute about 1:20 with water until it’s the colour of weak tea. Best for Tomatoes, annuals, bedding plants Buy Comfrey ‘Bocking 14’ plants at crocus.co.uk
Nettle feed
When you’re after a high nitrogen feed to encourage lush, leafy growth, put on your gloves and reach for your nearest nettle patch. Young nettles cut at about 30cm tall in early summer, before they turn woody, contain the most nitrogen. Don’t take them from the open countryside, though, as they’re an important food source for wildlife, and ask permission before harvesting from someone else’s land.
Make up a big batch of nettle feed in June and it’ll keep all season. Dilute roughly one-part nettle feed to 20 parts water. Once you’ve used it up, tip the residual sludge onto the compost. Best for Salads, brassicas, leafy houseplants