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In dry, Mediterranean and hot summer regions, it makes a fantastic deal of sense to get the job of feeding the garden plants completed at the extremely onset of spring or even at the end of winter. There are two compelling factors for this.
The 1st one is that spring is the season when the gardener has so quite a few tasks that basically have to be carried out, such as pruning and clipping evergreen shrubs, weeding and planting, that it's very best logistically, that the feeding be properly out the way before the onslaught begins.
The second reason applies to the use of bulky organic materials such as compost and commercially produced humus. The plants, it should be recalled, take up the nutrients essential to their growth and development in the form of dissolved mineral salts. As it takes a particular period of time for compost to break down from an organic to a mineral state, and thinking about that the spring is the principle growing season in these climates, it is desirable that the nutrients, like nitrogen and phosphorous, be readily out there to the plants at specifically the time when they have to have them most.
Chemical fertilizer or compost?
1 of the perennial and long-standing dilemmas suffered by lots of household gardeners is whether or not to feed their plants with chemical fertilizers, or no matter if to apply compost to the soil. Chemical fertilizers are the cheapest and most efficient method of supplying quickly accessible nutrients to the plants. The trouble is that their excessive and prolonged use, has amongst other drawbacks, detrimental consequences for the long-term well being of the soil.
Spreading bags of compost on the other hand, could be laborious and reasonably pricey, but if carried out on a regular basis - when in the spring and again in the autumn - causes the soil's top quality as a living habitat to boost progressively. Numerous benefits accrue as a result in such matters as an improved air/moisture balance, reduced pests and illness infestations, and a balanced supply of nutrients released in a controlled fashion to the garden plants.
For beds that have but to be planted, compost need to be incorporated at the rate of at least 20-30 liters per square meter of soil. Amongst established plants having said that, a rate of five liters per square meter is a more realistic figure. Care really should be taken not to injure the roots of trees and shrubs by digging with garden forks or similar instruments. It is preferred therefore to avoid such tools and simply cultivate the soil lightly about the plants.
If a soil test reveals chronic nutrient deficiencies, particularly in the 3 macro-elements, nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium, then additional amendments to compost need to be considered. These can supplied by such products as commercially ready humus, based on worm castes, and organic or controlled released fertilizers, that although getting much more high priced than readily soluble fertilizer, have to have only be applied twice a year, and a far much less hazardous to the biological and chemical balance of the soil.
Feeding lawns
In hot, dry summer regions, lawn varieties are in most cases perennial kinds like Bermuda grass or species of Zoysia. It is probable to feed them at the beginning of spring, but it is preferable to wait until de-hatching has been completed in the middle of spring.
