The August issue of This Month’s Garden Tasks is available for your reading pleasure.
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Posts tagged as:
fertilizing
Busy time in the garden. I’ve been piddling along out there lately, doing little jobs and thinking strategy for the fall. This past week I had some time, the weather cooled down, and I was on a roll.
I have lots of potted plants, mostly succulents, that are tired and need to be repotted or pitched out. I consolidated some of them into bigger pots and I think I might have a little plant sale with the plants I’m not in love with anymore.
I’m trying to make a space so I can get a couple of chickens, but I’ve got a lot of work ahead of me before that’s going to happen. The big cedar tree in the front will provide one perimeter of the chicken enclosure, but right now the tree is surrounded by bicycles so I have to move some things around out there. I bought a bamboo fence and Mi Esposo helped me get it placed today. I filled in a big space with more gravel which cleaned up the area tremendously. I love crushed gravel! Instant fix.
Last weekend I got a lot of flowerbed cleanup and fertilizing done. The climbing rose beds got raked out and I applied Ada Perry’s Rose Fertilizer. I think Ada Perry’s fertilizer has been the secret to the big difference I see in the health of the rose bushes since I’ve started applying it. Walter Andersen’s Nursery is the exclusive nursery to buy Ada Perry’s if you are in the market for it. Anyway, I finished off the beds with worm castings from my own compost bins! Nice!
I still have things to move around out there but it was a good start. I’m loving the cool weather because I know it’s not going to last. It stayed cool like this last year until mid-August, then the heat hit with a vengeance for a few months. Threw my whole gardening calendar out of whack. Keeps things interesting, that’s for sure!
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I’ve been trying to do a better job of feeding my plants with food appropriate for the different plants I’m growing.
It’s time to feed the following plants:
Feed camellias with 2-10-10 with iron for larger buds for dark green leaves.
Fertilize staghorn ferns with 20-10-10 to give them a boost since they are starting to grow
Epiphyllums need a 0-10-10 fertilizer to promote blooming in the spring.
Cybidium orchids should be fed a 0-10-10 fertilizer until they bloom
Citrus needs to be fertilized with a high nitrogen mixture because they are starting to sprout new leaves. I bought some citrus food that is actually an amendment on top of what I would use for citrus fertilizer. I learned that copper is a key ingredient for citrus because it helps sweeten the fruit. I also realized after doing some reading that I probably have a pretty acute copper deficiency on my tangerine tree based on the unusually large, green leaves that developed on my very small tree. Apparently that is a classic system of copper deficiency.
Here are some general rules of fertilizing:
Generally leafy plants (ferns, hostas, grass, etc) require high nitrogen fertilizers as they consume relatively little potassium and phosphorus. Flowering plants on the other hand has a very high need for potassium and especially phosphorus. Fruiting plants are similar to flowers except they benefit from added potassium and calcium, also.
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Finally, a rain storm that actually materialized. Lots of promises in the last few months, but very few raindrops overall. I fertilized the garden on Saturday, cleaned up the yard and turned over anything that could fill up with water and now I get to sit back and enjoy the show. Inside, the house is [...]
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I’ve added a new page called Monthly Garden Jobs to 3000Tomatoes that will inform you of monthly garden jobs that need to be done. I will change it monthly. You will find general info; fertilizing info; what it’s time to plant and other miscellaneous tidbits.
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My goal this year has been to do a better job of fertilizing in the garden. Miracle-Gro has always been a favorite of mine and I still use it for general purpose garden feeding, but this year it was time to step it up. My citrus, in particular, didn’t produce a crop last year so [...]
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I was out in the garden early this morning. I love that time communing with the plants. It was a good opportunity to get caught up on odd jobs in the yard. I transplanted some more seedlings (watermelon, cukes, and egg gourds). The other seedlings I planted last week aren’t really looking energetic so I [...]
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