Giving Back
With the almost constant rains of April and early May finally looking like they will be subsiding, it is now time to start ‘giving back’ to our gardens.
Remember all those leaves and debris that we removed last fall and during our Spring clean-up? These are the nutrients and organic matter that we stole away from our plants in exchange for a tidy-looking yard. Well now it is pay-back time! A time to look sheepishly around our yard, mutter some apologies, and give back to our garden what was taken away from it… albeit in another form, but regardless, the point is we are making ‘amends’!
Soil is at the ‘root’ of plant heath. Keeping our soil healthy sets us up to grow healthy plants. So what is healthy soil? It is soil that can sustain life- not just the lives of our plants, but also all the other organisms that live within it. To sustain life (both above and below ground) soil needs to have: nutrients, moisture, air and a suitable structure in which other organisms can grow.
Two important amendments to maintain soil heath are:
NUTRIENTS: in the form of natural fertilizers. In general, fertilizers contain (and plants need) 3 macronutrients- Nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P) and Potassium (K)- they are listed on the package according to their percent by weight in the fertilizer. For example, an N-P-K analysis of 15-30-15 is 15% nitrogen, 30% phosphorus and 15% potassium. The remaining 40% is ‘other’, which can be organic matter, micronutrients (also needed by plants) and filler (in the case of synthetic/man-made fertilizers) .
There are two kinds of fertilizers: organic (which comes from natural sources) and inorganic (which is mined or man-made). Additionally, there are two modes of application: granular (which is slow release and available to plants over a long period of time) and water soluble (which is instantly available to plants for a very short period of time).
ORGANIC MATTER- serves many important roles in the soil. It increases the water holding capacity in sandy soils, helps break-up and promote drainage in clay soils, holds and releases nutrients to plants, and improves the overall structure of the soil.
While I am not strictly an organic gardener, I do consider myself an ‘ecological gardener’ and I typically use natural amendments to add both nutrients and organic matter to my garden beds. After all, it was organic material that was removed from my gardens therefore it is organic material that I will replace. This week, I have been using pelleted hen manure to fertilize the beds. Compost is something I will do in the weeks to come- at which point I will do another blog post on this important amendment!
A handful of stinky goodness- pelleted chicken poop!
Oh hen poo- how I love you! Why you ask? It is a natural and relatively balanced fertilizer (5-3-3), contains organic matter, is easy to apply, the brands I use are approved for use in organic gardening, and I don’t need to worry about burning foliage with it or over-fertilizing my plants which are two concerns when using synthetic fertilizers. To loosely steal from a well-known cough syrup commercial: it smells awful, but it works!
To apply the hen manure, I broadcast it by hand around all the plants in the garden, paying particular attention to spreading it where the roots would be growing… which, generally speaking, is the area beneath a tree or shrub extending from it’s base out to the drip line (outlined in the diagram below using dotted lines). It is important to keep in mind that the roots most able to absorb nutrients are those further away from the base of the plant and closer to the drip line, so throwing a pile of fertilizer at the base of a plant isn’t going to do much for it! The same goes for perennials- the manure gets sprinkled on the soil around the perennials not on them!
The area beneath trees and shrubs where fertilizer is broadcasted. The roots most able to absorb nutrients are closer to the drip line of the plant (shown as dotted lines, above) so I make sure the distribution of hen manure is weighted more toward the drip line as opposed to the base of the plants
After I disperse the hen manure, I work it into the garden- usually by hand, but a cultivator works well too.
So put on the nose plugs… and if you catch a whiff, remind yourself- you are doing this for soil health and ultimately the good of your garden!