Most garden perennials are uncomplicated and get by with few nutrients. If they are in the right place, the plants often do not need to be fertilized.
That’s why I distribute little fertilizer in the flower beds in spring. Only those who are hungry like phlox, delphinium, asters and sunflowers are given a larger portion. Because my stock of sifted compost has shrunk to a manageable heap after supplying the vegetable patches, I alternatively buy an organic complete fertilizer to supply the plants. I do not use mineral fertilizers as a basic fertilizer … even if as a child I found the blue grains in the bed very pretty ?
Since many perennials have shallow roots, I only incorporate the fertilizer little or not at all – I let earthworms and other small organisms do this for me. What is often overlooked is that soils can also be over-fertilized with organic substances. Therefore, you should dose according to the instructions on the packaging or have a soil analysis done in advance. However, the leaching is less with the slow-acting fertilizers, because their nutrients gradually dissolve in the soil and are completely absorbed by the plants and little or no nitrate is introduced into the groundwater.
More knowledge about organic fertilizers
Animal manure for the flower beds
Animal fertilizers made from blood and bone meal are hardly commercially available anymore. Horn shavings, on the other hand, are still very popular. They pass as almost pure nitrogen fertilizer, because their proportions of phosphate, sulfur and potassium are less than one percent. Horn shavings are suitable for most gardens, because more than half of private gardens are sufficiently supplied with phosphate and potassium or are severely overfertilized. I bring it out under my hedges.
If you want to supply your garden with manure and manure, you should pick it up from a farmer you trust. In this way you prevent residues of hormones and other substances that are used in animal factories from finding their way into your garden. In theory, I could use manure as fertilizer. But getting it takes a lot of effort. In addition, manure should never be distributed fresh, but only well seasoned. Another point that speaks against the fertilizer candidate for me.
As an alternative, the trade offers various organic complex fertilizers: In the form of cattle manure pellets or bird manure (guano). Fertilizers made from sheep’s wool are relatively new. I don’t buy guano manure anymore after seeing Arte under what circumstances it is scraped off the rocks.
Vegetable fertilizers
For those who do not want to distribute animal-derived products in the garden, there are all-vegetable fertilizers.
Compost is also one of the plant-based fertilizers. It supplies nitrogen, but also phosphorus, potash, magnesium and valuable humic substances. At best you win it yourself. If you do not have the time or space for this, you can ask your community if necessary. Because many have public bio-waste facilities or have collection points for garden and bio-waste from households in the respective areas. In these centers, the collected biomaterial is often composted directly.
