fertilizer

One thing that is lucky about the slow start the garden got this year, is that by the time I was doing my later plantings (watermelon, squash) I had learned from some failures/disappointments from the first plantings. One of those was the importance of fertilizing.

Although we intended to fertilize the whole garden with manure and leaves, most of this went to just two beds. I thought since the land hadn't been used for a garden for at least several years (perhaps never), the soil was probably chock full of nutrients and fertilziing wouldn't be a problem. It probably wasn't, but fertilization would have helped.

The thing about fertilization is that it helps plants grow stronger, making them more resistant to bugs and disease. Used in a targeted way, it also helps the plants grow faster than weeds, increasing the likelihood of the vegetables' triumph over the weeds.

I didn't research fertilization options too much, and I didn't get my soil tested (I will next year though). I just found a recipe and scoured the gardening store looking for the ingredients. The primary ingredient is a seed meal of some sort - the only one I found was cottonseed meal. The secondary ingredient is lime. You use about eight times as much cottonseed meal as lime, and mix them together. I just put a small scoop of this (1/4 cup) where I was planting seeds and mixed it in with the hand trowel. The watermelon and the celery seem to love it, but the summer squash that I planted has been lackluster. Actually, come to think of it, I may or may not have given fertilizer to the summer squash.

I also bought a container of seaweed extract. It seemed expensive, but you dilute a tablespoon in a gallon of water, which has been enough for a whole bed of vegetables. I think it will last at least a season or two. The celery has always responded noticeably to fertilization. I hope to do some experimentation next year so that I can compare growth, insect and disease resistance, size of harvest, and ultimately taste for plants depending on the fertilization.