My silly question for today

We garden on sandy soil and last year, after a major make-over, planted pretty much the whole lot (roughly 60 sq.m. excluding lawn) with hardy perennials - the spaces in between being filled with bedding and annuals. Each plant was given some homemade compost and a 'handful' of Growmore as it went in and, apart from one or two winter casualties, most things appear to be growing well.

Clearly with our soil type, these plants are going to need a good feed and I'm tempted towards top dressing with Growmore although a friend suggests something like Miracle-Gro.

Now, I may be wrong, but I've always assumed Miracle-Gro to be a 'quick fix', easy to use but with short lived benefits and, so far as I can see if 1 refill does about 40 sq.m, I'm going to need 2 refills every 7-14 days at something like £8 a time whereas 10 kg of Growmore will be about £15.

I'm wondering what the more experienced among you would suggest?

 

you wil need to hoe the growmore in and it will need a moist soil to breakdown the granuals.

Slow release shrub fertiliser is good.

When you planted did you incorporsted any bonemeal - cheap and slow release but not balanced.

How about a mulch of something like a mix of mushroom compost, FYM and peat (sorry about the peat). But this is act to conserve moisture (so apply after it has rained) and will provide some nutrients.

On sandy soil you will need to add compost each year to retain water and nutrients.

 

Hi Fidgetsmum. I would go with the growmore. Miraclegro would be prohibitively expensive and might not do the job you want. If your soil is very light and sandy I would spend the saved money on compost or some kind of soil improver to top dress the plants and improve the structure of the soil over the years. Hope you get a great show this year.

 

Growmore it is then - at least with sandy soil it's easy to work (even if it does cost a small fortune constantly battling to improve it!). Thanks folk.