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Plants growing in soil can be fertilised with any of the plant "foods" on the market. Follow the directions on the packet but do not overdo it. If you feed too often or with too strong a solution, you can cause overfeeding. …

Source: Fine

Bonsai ‘food’ can readily be obtained from a local nursery or gardening section, or purchased online. The most common type contains NPK, nitrogen (N), phosphates (P) and potassium (K). The last is usually in the form of potash, …

Source: Jennifer

Why do good quality triple-pack nutrients come in Grow, Bloom and Boost options? Optimum and Power Gro are both available in two distinct formulations, each with a different ratio of the macro elements. The Grow formulation is designed …

Source: Fine

Question: Will adding phosphate & potash to soil increase fruit yield on my tomatoes?

Source: unknown

Source: "gardening" - Google News

A good nutrient solution should contain a full profile of trace elements, usually known as micro-nutrients in hydroponics. The essential micro-nutrients are iron, manganese, copper, zinc, boron and molybdenum. Some solutions may contain …

Source: Fine

Hi everyone

Welcome to this edition of your Gardening Weekly, today's edition is entitled:

Crop Rotation For Vegetables

QUOTE: This is the real secret of life - to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now.
And instead of calling it work, realize it is play.
- Alan Watts

When growing vegetables in the garden most people tend to grow the same crops year after year.
This is not surprising really, as we grow the crops that we prefer to eat and we also tend to grow the plants that we have the most success growing.

One thing that most gardeners seem to do is grow the same vegetables in the very same place in the garden each year.

You will tend to have a spot for your tomatoes and a spot for your pumpkins and so on.

Website Of Interest. Check out the following:
http://blog.mygardeninghome.com/plants.html

The problem with planting the same crops in the same place each year is the effect it has on the nutrients in the soil.

Plants will extract the nutrients that they need from the soil for their specific requirements each season.  By planting the same crops in the same places you can get nutrient deficiencies.

This is where crop rotation can enhance the value of your soil.  By rotating where you plant your vegetables each season you will be giving the soil the opportunity to produce better results as there won't be the same demands on the nutrients in the soil when there is a different plant growing their from last season.

To improve the soil quality even more, you should dig in the remains of the crops once the season has finished allowing some of those nutrients to be put back into the soil.  In the off-season you can also grow cover crops in the garden.  These are crops that are grown specifically to add nitrogen to the soil.  These crops have high nitrogen value in their roots and when they are ready, you dig them into the soil.

In doing this you can expect a better harvest each year as the new planting of vegetables will have more nutrients to feed them.

Website Of Interest. Check out the following:
http://blog.mygardeninghome.com/plants.html

Thanks,
Annie
My Gardening Home Blog

Hi everyone

Welcome to this edition of your Gardening Weekly, today's edition is entitled:

Understanding Soil

QUOTE: All the flowers of all the tomorrows are in the seeds of today.
- Indian Proverb

Understanding the role that soil plays in the garden is one of the best assets that you can have as a gardener.
It is this knowledge that will allow you to create a healthier environment for your plants and get the maximum benefits from them.

In doing so, you will also make your own life easier, as a garden that is well managed from the soil up, is a garden that is a lot easier to manage, from one day to the next.

A garden that has good soil that has been fed with good nutrition over time will make growing almost anything easy for even the least experienced gardener.

Website Of Interest. Check out the following:
http://blog.mygardeninghome.com/soil.html

So how to you get good soil?

First you need to consider how plants grow and how they get their nutrition and that is through their roots.
Therefore, in order for the plants to grow well, they need to be in soil that allows their roots to get to the nutrition.
Obviously compact ground with little water, little air and poor nutrition will not produce the best plants.

Plants need water and air and this requires soil that has spaces to hold this air and water.
Therefore soil that is aerated will generally produce a better garden.  Once again it is all about balance, as soil that is too crumbly might not hold the nutrients as well, where the water might wash them away.  The soil also needs to be firm enough to support the growth of the plant otherwise it will topple over at the first sign of a wind.

The soil needs to have suitable nutrients and if any of these nutrients are out of balance, the pH scale that measures whether the soil is acidic or alkaline, will show why they are having difficulty absorbing the nutrients.

Website Of Interest. Check out the following:
http://blog.mygardeninghome.com/soil.html

Thanks,
Annie
http://blog.mygardeninghome.com

Hi everyone

Welcome to this edition of your Gardening Weekly, today's edition is entitled:

Feed For Your Plants

QUOTE: I will be the gladdest thing under the sun!
I will touch a hundred flowers
And not pick one.
- Edna St. Vincent Millay

The best time to start feeding your garden is in spring.  At this time of the year the ground is still moist from the winter and early spring rains.

As the ground warms up with the hotter spring weather you get ideal growing conditions in your garden.

This is a crucial time for growth in the garden and you will need to ensure that your plants have the necessary nutrients to benefit from this period.

The small feeder roots that will be developing will seek the nutrients that you need to supply them.

Website Of Interest. Check out the following:
http://blog.mygardeninghome.com/soil.html

By choosing the correct foods for your plants they will have better foliage, they will be stronger plants and will also have more abundant flowering.

There are three key factors that are needed in a balanced plant food and they are nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium.

A plentiful supply of nitrogen will ensure that your plants have healthy foliage.  Phosphorus improves the plants root health and potassium will encourage the plant to bloom and fruit.

As you can see they are all needed for the overall health of the plants and you should always check on the packaging of the fertilizer to see whether the chemical analysis is suitable.

These fertilizers usually come in three forms - controlled release, liquid and soluble.  Controlled release formulations have the nutrients inside a semi-permeable membrane that allows the nutrients to be released into the soil in a controlled manner once it reacts with the soil moisture and temperature.

One application can last months and it is ideal for containers and indoor plants and established plants and trees.
Liquid formulations are similar to the soluble ones but they have been mixed with water and can be sprayed on the plants leaves for rapid response.

Soluble formulations and applied dry and dissolve once the area receives water, which will dissolve the salts and make the nutrients available for the roots of the plant.

All applications have their benefits and you need to decide which is best for the plants you are feeding.

Website Of Interest. Check out the following:
http://blog.mygardeninghome.com/soil.html

Thanks,
Annie
My Gardening Home Blog

Hi everyone

Welcome to this edition of your Gardening Weekly, and a very Happy New Year to you all.  Today's edition, is entitled:

Making the Most of Any Soil

QUOTE: Gardening is a kind of disease.
It infects you, you cannot escape it.
When you go visiting, your eyes rove about the garden; you interrupt the serious cocktail drinking because of an irresistible impulse to get up and pull a weed.
- Lewis Gannit

It's not what you start with when it comes to the quality of the soil in your garden, but the results you have when the preparation has finished that really matters.  With the correct information and procedures you can make any soil fertile but the key factor here is getting the right information in the first place.

Even poor quality soil can be improved to the extent that you can have a lush garden.

Planning your garden ahead of planting will make all the difference as you will be able to get proper drainage sorted out while also allowing for good water and nutrient retention.

Website Of Interest. Check out the following:
http://blog.mygardeninghome.com/soil.html

Digging the soil will give you a good feel for it's quality and allow you to look at factors such as the density of the soil and whether it needs breaking up to allow for more water, air and nutrients to be retained within it.

The types of plants you intend to have in your garden will determine what you will need to do with the soil, as some plants thrive in heavy conditions, such as those found in clay soils, whereas other plant roots will struggle to get through anything other than light sandy soils.

Mixing in compost, sand, and other grades of soil when you are digging your garden can change the structure considerably.  Having additional information from pH test kits will also ensure you have the right balance of lime in your garden.

You might need to add fertilizer to get the quality of the land up to suitable levels for planting but almost any soil can be made fit with the right preparation.

Consider raising the garden beds where the ground is particularly poor or where there could be problems with drainage.

Light sandy soils will have space for air, water and nutrients but the nutrients can get washed away easily leaving the plants to suffer.  Heavy clay soils can hold the nutrients better but the roots of the plants might have trouble getting to them.  Clay soils can also become waterlogged or alternatively in hot dry weather they can become very hard, cracked and dry.

The climate will play a big part in determining how you prepare your soil.

Website Of Interest. Check out the following:
http://blog.mygardeninghome.com/soil.html

Thanks,
Annie
http://blog.mygardeninghome.com