If you don't feed your plants and soil they wont feed you,
I have no intention of buying expensive plant feeds and wasting money on fertiliser when it can all be done for free.
The other day we pop to the beach, while there Martin collected some seaweed for me, for a seaweed feed they say collect from the water line, not from the high tide line as there could be little creatures living in there waiting for the sea to come in,
The seaweed goes into a sack and in a bin filled with rain water, lid on, stirred every few days after 3 weeks it will be a bit smelly and brown in colour, it will be ready to use, pop some into a watering can add some water, you want it like a weak black tea, your plants will love you for it, the seaweed can be thrown onto the compost heap or put around plants.
The next feed I am using is the liquid sunit from doing the sheep fleeces last year, I have topped the bin up with rain water and its now ready to use, you can make some up just collect some sheep poo, put it in a sack and leave for about 3-4 weeks in a bin of rain water keep covered, again water it down before applying to plants.
You can do the same with Comfrey and Nettles, my comfrey plants are too young to be taking there leaves.
The compost heap is another free feed for the soil, mine gets added to in layers, animal bedding, grass cuttings, animal poo, plant vegetable matter that cant be given to livestock, kitchen waste, wood ash, shredded paper, I never never add perennial weeds to the compost heap, that is just asking for trouble, the heap gets turned regularly and is used in the autumn to top dress the raised beds.
I do also dry out egg shells in the bottom oven of the Rayburn when they are dry they are so dry they crumble in your hands, I crush them up and scatter them in and around the growing areas, it adds much needed calcium, my all time favourite is of course Alpaca poo, just spread around the soil it adds lots of goodness and the worms flock in.
If the plants and soil are well fed they will feed you well in return, I am not trying to grow the biggest or best just good healthy productive plants.
We have less access to all of that, but we compost all our green waste and add in the chicken straw and poop. One day we will live on average and have more poo from animals....I can't wait lol. So for now I'm buying in fertiliser in the form of composted animal manure and sea sol ( commercially made seaweed extract ) I also get something called Charlie carp which is composted carp which are pests infesting the Australian river systems :)
ReplyDeleteI have used Sea Sol before, just got to the bottom of the tub, now we are near the sea I can make my own, Sea Sol is great stuff, :)
DeleteDawn if only that darn bridge wasn't built a little to the left I'd be right over to help you! x
ReplyDeleteyour welcome any time :)
DeleteI have two buckets of comfrey and nettle feed waiting to be strained. I'll be collecting more this weekend. I'm also going to fill the greenhouse with manure this winter to rot down so I can plant directly into the soil in there. Any excess will go in the beds.
ReplyDeleteI am looking forward to doing comfrey next year :)
DeleteNot organised yet with making fertlizers from poo, etc, but we have some of 2015 nettle fertilizer left, and crikey but doesn't it smell wonderfully atrocious!
ReplyDeletethe smellier the better :)
DeleteI'm trying to gradually do my bit re feed for free. Every time I go and collect the eggs I give the chooks some of the algae off the top of the pond, they love it and wait for it now, and I dry my egg shells in the conservatory and put them in the enclosure. I put the chicken house clean up, poo and straw, in the compost bin alternating with food waste from the kitchen; my food caddy takes so much longer to fill now because I give some to the chickens, sometimes the dog of course and some to the compost bin. I had my hair cut yesterday so my lovely locks went in and I have started putting the vacuum dust on the compost, too. I have a barrow full of leaves and grass from when I was strimming at the front of the house this morning so plan to put that in, too. I'm trying.
ReplyDeleteyou are doing great Louise nothing beats home made compost on the garden :)
DeleteI should have said that Dawn gave me a lot of help and advice about the above.
ReplyDeleteNever a truer word was written, I collect all my veg and fruit waste, lawn mowings, clippings I also scrounge newspaper and grass from my neighbours and all brown cardboard. I make nettle tea and any time I am at the coast keep an eye out for seaweed. There are stables near bye and they are all to happy to get rid of their mountains of horse manure, all I need is a small shovel, compost bags and a peg. I do add perennial weeds but only after they have been rotted down in some water.
ReplyDeletePam, do you ever have issues with weed seeds from the horse poo? I've heard it has a very bad reputation as a manure for bringing weed seeds into the garden. My kids ride weekly at a riding therapy place ( RDA) and all their horses are fed Lucerne etc as there isn't much forage. I could get their horse poo, but I don't want beds full of weeds :/
DeleteI wouldnt use manure straight from the stable on the garden, you should let it stand for about 3-4 weeks it will heat up and this should kill off any seeds and bugs, if it still smells of ammonia then its not ready to use, it will scorch your plants.
DeleteThat's good to know Dawn :) maybe I should get some next time were there!
DeleteOur rule is that no organic matter can leave the property. If it has lived before it will live again.
ReplyDeleteIs it just hessian sacks that you use?
ReplyDeleteyes but an old pillow case would work just as well
ReplyDelete