Anyone even remotely interested in gardening will know that it is feeding the soil rather than feeding the plants in it, that will result in a gorgeous garden. If you stimulate lots of soft growth you’ll just create imbalance by attracting a surfeit of pests, not to mention plants that the soil cannot ultimately sustain.

There is though, a place for a nutrient-rich dousing for some plants. Anything living in a container relies completely on you for nutrients and therefore needs help. Fruit and vegetable crops obviously benefit from being extra big and juicy, and established shrubs which look in any way worse for wear are often lacking in essential nutrients.

For pots and crops, feed weekly. Seaweed extract in liquid form is my go-to product. Maxicrop is an organic brand, and has a general ‘Plant growth stimulant’ and a ‘Flower fertiliser’ for when flowers appear. For shrubs, seaweed can be used from above as a foliar feed, and really seems to make a difference, particularly to evergreens.

Comfrey is the bomb when it comes to fertilisers, but if your garden is small and you don’t fancy the pong, then you can get it in pellet form to make a liquid feed. Of course there are also perfectly good synthetic feeds on the market too. The choice is wide, but the rule of regular feeds, (weekly or fortnightly) still applies, as does switching from general fertilisers to something with more potassium (i.e. tomato food) when the flowers appear.

Seaweed and tomato fertiliser (there are other brands from those pictured above; I’ve used most of them and they are all much of a muchness…Maxicrop are soil-association approved though, which usually makes them my choice) are my stalwarts for the container garden and shrub drenching. I’ve also been using Topbuxus’s health mix for box. I have no idea whether it works better than other feeds as I’ve not been using it long enough, but my thinking is that the makers, being box experts, should know their subject. Lastly, the Natural Grower fertiliser - a vegan feed using a byproduct from maize crops that then goes back into the soil to fertilise it. This bottle was was kindly sent to me and it seems to be doing wonders for my squashes, although be warned, it is VERY smelly…clothes-pegs at the ready!

x Laetitia