Why and How to Feed Your Garden in Spring and Summer
When springtime comes and your yard starts turning green, it's a good idea to think about feeding your garden. Giving your plants food during spring and summer is really important because it helps them grow strong, makes the soil better, and keeps your plants healthy so they can fight off bugs and sickness. Let's talk about why it's good to feed your garden and how you can do it easily.
Why Feed Your Garden?
- Plants Need Food: Just like people, plants need food to grow. Feeding your garden gives your plants important stuff like nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium which they might not get from the soil alone.
- Better Soil: Fertilizer can make your soil better at holding water and staying healthy, which is super important when it's hot.
- Tough Plants: Plants that get enough food are stronger and can deal with pests, diseases, and bad weather better.
- More Flowers and Veggies: Feeding your plants helps them produce more flowers and vegetables.
How to Feed Your Garden
Step 1: Check Your Soil
Find out what your soil needs by using a soil test kit from a garden store.
Step 2: Pick the Right Food - Keep It Organic
Use organic fertilizers to avoid adding harmful chemicals to your food, and to protect the helpful insects that live in your garden spaces.
- Compost: You can make compost at home by recycling kitchen scraps like vegetable peels, coffee grounds, and eggshells, along with yard waste like leaves and grass clippings. It's an excellent way to recycle things you'd normally throw away and turn it into something useful.
- Manure: Cow, horse, sheep, or chicken manure can be very beneficial for your garden. Make sure the manure is well-rotted or aged before applying it to your garden to prevent burning your plants with the high nitrogen levels found in fresh manure.
- Worm Castings: Worms break down organic waste to produce a highly nutritious fertilizer. You can buy worm castings from garden stores or start your own worm composting bin.
- Bone Meal: This is a slow-release fertilizer made from ground animal bones, rich in phosphorus, which promotes strong root development. It's readily available at most garden centers.
- Fish Emulsion: A liquid fertilizer made from the by-products of the fish industry, fish emulsion is high in nitrogen and is beneficial for leafy plant growth. It can often be found at garden stores and can be diluted with water and applied directly to your plants' soil.
Step 3: Put the Food Down Right
- Read the instructions: Adding too much can hurt your plants.
- For solid plant food: Sprinkle it on the ground around your plants but not too close.
- For liquid plant food: Mix with water and pour it on the soil around your plants.
- Water your garden: This helps the nutrients sink down into the soil getting it closer to the root systems of your plants.
Step 4: Stick to a Schedule
Feed your garden every 4-6 weeks during spring and summer.
Step 5: Watch and Adjust
Keep an eye on your plants. If they start looking unhappy and turning brown and crispy or growing funny, you might need to slow down. If you see your plants turning yellow and looking dull, you might need to add a little more fertilizer to get them back on the right track.
Happy Growing!
Feeding your garden helps make sure your plants are happy and healthy. By checking your soil, picking the right plant food, and using it the right way, you can have a beautiful garden. Remember, every plant is different, so pay attention to what they need.
Happy gardening!
If you'd like more gardening tips and guides on creating a thriving garden, join us over at Gather and Grow - our online gardening club where we deep dive on a different gardening topic each month.
