Shrub feeding 101, and generally being good enough
Hello Friends!
Big fat HELLO if you are new here! This is where I get a bit more personal and pour out my gardening heart and soul, and I'm so glad you're here. We are a talkative tribe, with lots of chat, so please don't be shy and hit 'reply' if you have any questions, comments or criticisms!
My five minute forays this week
Monday:
It rains heavily all day, without stopping so I put my mac on and go out into the garden to find some grit, and I put this on the surface of my potted pelargoniums (which live indoors) in a nice thick layer. I love grit. Grit is a gardeners friend, and it's not often talked about as an essential thing, which I'm going to rectify here. I would go so far as to say that in addition to a pair of gloves and a good weeding tool, that grit is one of the the most useful things you can have in your armoury in the garden. Top-dressing containers with grit is absolutely never not a good idea. It keeps moisture in and flies and weeds out, and it looks chic. Grit is also an essential ingredient in lots of potting mixes, adding drainage and weight that's perfect for seeds and cuttings, and for alpines or succulents and cacti. Get some.
By the way, if you're at all interested in pelargoniums (or even if you're not) then do have a listen to my latest podcast - an interview with Heather Godard-Key from Fibrex Nurseries. It is pelargonium tip-tastic! You can listen here.
Tuesday:
I've slightly fallen off the wagon with checking for caterpillars (see previous newsletter), not because my commitment is lessened, but because I cannot face finding them, and they gross me out, big-time, and generally life is too short. I sprayed the box balls with Xentari last week - a biological concoction which stops the caterpillars in their tracks but does not harm bees. I'm cautious in shouting about it, because it hasn't yet been approved by the British ministry of garden concoctions, which is why it's only available from the Netherlands, via Amazon. As far as I can make out this is because it takes time for them to do so. But it IS working! Damage has ceased, and although I'm finding one or two caterpillars (when I bother to look) it's nothing like the numbers I was finding before. Last year, when I pulled out half my box collection, it was because the caterpillar had completely and utterly defoliated each plant within a matter of 48 hours. So, a huge win there. But I digress...the best thing you can do to prevent any bad stuff happening to any plant is to keep it as healthy as possible, to which I applied a foliar feed today, called Topbuxus Health Mix. It's like an effervescent tablet that you dissolve in a litre of water and then spray on the leaves of the plant. It also contains an anti-fungal agent, to guard against box blight. The weather is gorgeous - I spray, and I feel good. I also tie in lots of climbing things. This is an essential thing to do if you want your climbers to go where you want them to go (probably outwards, to cover walls or trellis) rather than where they want to go, which is upwards (to reach the sun). It's one of those things that only works if you do it in a five minute way - little and often. My neighbours come by and ask to borrow my Niwaki shears. I am surprised at how hard it feels to loan these out - I would possibly find it easier to lend someone my engagement ring. I resolve to work on this uncomfortable attachment.
Wednesday:
Rain again. I remove two long stems of bindweed, and a couple of other interlopers.
It finally stops raining and on a whim I decide to do a little tour of the garden on Instagram. The response is overwhelming. I think people appreciate it when you show them the WHOLE rather than just the perfect bits. I certainly do. The garden tour is up in my highlights if you want a peek.
Thursday:
I have to be in the countryside in the morning. Fortuitously my meeting is a stones throw from Nymans Garden and I go and look - it's been about ten years since I've been there. They are sticking pea sticks in the long borders in preparation of the helenium which is about to grow up and out at an alarming speed. It reminds me that although I don't really stake anything in my own garden, I did resolve to do so with the geranium I have, which really does flop everywhere, so as soon as I get home I stick a few sticks around them. I also feed the lilacs and pelargoniums with tomato fertiliser. I like to feed shrubs (particularly containerised ones at this time of year (see below) but I'm also starting a feeding frenzy with my pelargoniums, spurred on by my podcast guest, Heather, who says you should feed your pelargoniums literally at every watering.
Friday:
Frantic day getting ready for eldest's ninth birthday tomorrow. I do some more weeding and feeding. before decorating and wrapping.
Feeding shrubs for best (or good enough) results
Few of us have the time or inclination to keep an exhaustive watch on our soil’s nutrient levels, and act accordingly. Even fewer are able to mulch properly twice a year, with ‘well rotted manure’. The answer - as with so much in life - is to be ‘good enough’. For me, that means a yearly mulching around my most important shrubs, and dousing the soil around the base of pretty much everything else using a general purpose liquid fertiliser.
That fertiliser is usually inorganic, and compound, which means that it is made up from minerals, mixed up to make a balanced feed, and put in a box or a bottle. I also use organic liquid fertilisers, like seaweed, comfrey and nettle throughout the growing season. These are easy to concoct yourself, if you have the raw materials and a bit of time, and a clothes peg for your nose, but you can also get them in bottle or teabag form, which, again, is ‘good enough’.
All shrubs will benefit from feeding, but particularly any that you have in containers, so tend to these first, making sure that the soil is moist before you feed, so that your potion doesn’t simply run out of the bottom. A difference will be noted within a few weeks, and you can skip off feeling nurturing, and happy, and – hurrah! - ‘good enough’.
All the good things, always
x Laetitia
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