Everyone knows that watering your garden is critical to keep your plants healthy, robust and producing the growth, foliage, and flowers that you want. It’s just as important as watering!

Not all home gardeners fully comprehend that a correct feeding regime is equally as important.

Feeding Mistakes a lot of Home Gardeners Make

Mistake 1 - Only using Compost and Manures.

Plants need a complex mix of nutrients and minerals to be available for them to use. Compost and manures certainly condition the soil and do provide nutrients, but many composts are low in much-needed Phosphorus and other micronutrients.

The right levels of Phosphorus are critical because this element helps plants to develop vigour and health by enabling the absorption of other nutrients. You can tell Phosphorus is vital for plant growth because it represents the P in NPK fertilisers.

Compost and manures are beneficial to soil and your plants but to grow the best plants and garden you can they are not enough!

Mistake 2 - Using Chemical Fertilisers

Using chemical fertilisers in your garden causes immense damage to soil life and makes your plants dependent on future chemical amendments. Without future doses of chemical fertilisers, your plants will lose vigour and will struggle.

The reason that this happens is all to do with how plants feed. You see plants by themselves can not absorb nutrients and minerals from the earth. Plants produce starches and sugars on their roots that attract the right organisms, bacteria and fungi. They consume the starches and sugars and in the process, release minerals and nutrients that are absorbed by the plant. Plants are so intelligent that they produce different starches and sugars to attract microorganisms and fungi that will transfer to them the minerals and nutrients that they require at that time. The next day if other nutrients are needed, the plant will produce different starches and sugars which will attract other microorganisms. I was stunned when I first learned that this occurs. Nature is incredible!

So what happens when you use chemical fertilisers in either slow-release or liquid form? You kill the microorganisms, bacteria and fungi that surround the plant you fed! Also, chemical fertilisers wash easily through the earth into the groundwater. In summary, you short circuit the natural plant feeding process by killing the microorganisms, waste money and pollute the groundwater with the excess chemical fertiliser, and cause dependency on future chemical additions to keep your plant looking good. Chemical fertilisers work because they are in a form that plants can absorb. If you use chemical fertilisers, don't lose hope. The damage is reversible. Stop using the chemicals and follow a feeding program of liquid and pelletised organic fertilisers that you will find at the end of this article. Persevere with the program and your will start to see a big positive difference.

If you would like learn more about the microorganisms in our soil and the important part they play look up Elaine Ingham who is a world leader in soil microbiology and soil research.

Mistake 3 - Feeding at the Wrong Time

Two central problems arise from feeding at the wrong time.

The first is that if you fertilise too early in a season, you can stimulate a plant from dormancy. The tender young growth is then susceptible to frost damage. That is why you do not give roses plant food until their first leaves are appearing. Dormant plants, stimulated by increasing day duration and temperature, know when it is the right time to create bud leaves.

The second problem is that if you feed at the wrong time, especially with fertilisers high in nitrogen, you can promote green leafy growth at the expense of flowers.

Mistake 4 - Feeding with the Wrong Product

All plants require a specific set of conditions particular to them to thrive. To get the most out of them, you should feed them with what they need. That is why you need to provide acid-loving plants such as gardenias, camellias and rhododendrons with specific acidic fertilisers suitable for them.

One of the most common mistakes made is to feed all of your plants with the same food. You don't get the best results and plants that are not getting what they need will over time, become sick and feeble.

Mistake 5 - Not Feeding Flowering Plants Enough

Some plants produce a mass of amazing flowers that we enjoy. Roses, peonies, camellias, rhododendrons, lilacs and fuchsias are some of my favourites. Making a lot of flowers takes a great deal of energy. Roses, for example, are often called "gross feeders" because of the enormous amounts of food they need to produce their magical display.

Gross Feeding plants need extra nutrition when compared to other plants in our garden. If you do not meet their feeding requirements, the number of flowers they produce will diminish over time.

Mistake 6 - Over Feeding your Plants

If you give your plants too much love and overfeed them you can create problems. Overfeeding can stunt growth, reduce moisture in the plant due to too many salts from the fertiliser being present and ultimately weaken the plant leading to disease.

How to Feed your Garden the Right Way!

You want to feed your garden /soil with nutrient, mineral and biologically rich materials to get the best results. The best two types of products we use are:

seaweed-based liquid feeds and;
biologically activated pelletised chicken manure.

Seaweed based liquid concentrates contain plant nutrients, trace elements, alginic acids and other bioactive compounds. Soil microorganisms thrive and multiply with regular use of these types of products.

Chicken manure is the most nutrient complete type of manure. It is better than all other types of animal faeces for one particular reason. Chickens urinate and pooh at the same time through the same orifice. That means the pooh is high in Nitrogen (N) as well as Phosphorus (P) and Potassium (K). Cows, Sheep and horses urinate separately, so the high nitrogen content in the urine isn't in found in their pooh. Pelletised chicken manure is the best natural slow-release food you can put on your garden.

Using a regular feeding program combining liquid seaweed extracts and pelletised chicken manure is the best way to move away from using chemical fertilisers.

How We Keep on Top of Feeding Our Garden

As experienced gardeners with an extensive and diverse garden, we can't keep in our heads all of the times of the year and frequency to feed our plants. When our garden was smaller and more straightforward, it wasn't a problem. So to overcome this issue we created for ourselves a garden feeding calendar broken down by the weeks in each season. For each type of plant, we recorded when we should fertilise and what kind of fertiliser to use.

This Garden Feeding Calendar is now one of the most valuable and used resources in our gardening efforts. We don't miss fertilising our gross feeders, fertilise at the wrong time or overuse a particular type of fertiliser. The results in our garden have been spectacular.

To help you avoid the mistakes, we outlined earlier and to help you keep on top of fertilising your garden we have made our Garden Feeding Calendar available to you free. By joining our mailing list, you can download the Calendar immediately. Just go to our home page or click here.

How to properly Feed your Garden and Mistakes to Avoid