Re: Over-pampering
- To:
- Subject: Re: Over-pampering
- From: G*
- Date: Sat, 29 May 1999 08:33:37 -0400
Hello Valerie,
One of the questions I get about halfway through showing someone my garden
is "what kind of fertilizer do you use and how often? Everything looks so
lush and full." Answer is ... "I don't". Woodland and most shade plants
don't want a lot of nitrogen. The only thing I do is use a mulch of chopped
leaves each fall. Of course, I did try and do the best I could when
preparing the garden for planting to begin with. I do try and remember to
lightly feed my Rhodies and Azaleas ever 2nd or 3rd year... when I remember
it.
I simply do not believe in all these chemicals and schedules, charts and
graphs, rituals and whatevers everyone seems to preach in today's
gardening. Gardening may constain a lot of different sciences but is not a
science.... gardening is an art. Best expressed individually.
Off of soapbox now...
Gene Bush Southern Indiana Zone 6a Munchkin Nursery
around the woods - around the world
genebush@otherside.com http://www.munchkinnursery.com
----------
> From: lowery@teamzeon.com
> Subject: Over-pampering
> Date: Thursday, May 27, 1999 2:58 PM
>
>
>
>
>
> Valerie Lowery@ZEON
> 05/27/99 02:58 PM
>
> Question to all:
>
>
> Has anyone ever given any thought to the results of over-pampering a
plant?
> I remember reading a passage in "The Well-Tended Perennial Garden" about
> this topic. The author says that one of the biggest mistakes that
> gardeners make is to "overfertilize" their gardens.
>
> This made me stop and re-read.
>
> It went so much against the grain of conventional wisdom that it made me
> think. I've read so much about the importance of fertilizing your
> perennials, top-dressing them every year (sometimes twice a year), and
also
> foliar feedings. I'm thinking that I'm leaning towards her side of the
> story lately. Her reasoning goes something like this: over-fertilizing
> plants leads to rampant growth which in the short-term seems like a
> wonderful thing. However, this will eventually lead to plants that are
> overstimulated and thus unable to cope with the ravages of fungal
attacks,
> drought conditions, heat, etc. Think of it as the same condition that
your
> plants would be in if you didn't give them any fertilizer at all:
spindly,
> little plants with no energy to combat anything. However, I can't
remember
> whether she went into details about what was TOO MUCH. She says that she
> top dresses with compost about every 2-3 years and that was it.
>
> Does anyone else have any comments about this theory?
>
>
> Val in KY
> zone 6a
>
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> To sign-off this list, send email to majordomo@mallorn.com with the
> message text UNSUBSCRIBE PERENNIALS
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To sign-off this list, send email to majordomo@mallorn.com with the
message text UNSUBSCRIBE PERENNIALS
