<p>I’ve taken up a new hobby, gardening. Yes, I’m 40 years old and potted my first plant this weekend. I luckily have several good friends who are mad about gardening who are coaching me. One of them makes his own food for his roses but other than that, they all use store bought plant food. </p>
<p>I have nothing against better living through chemistry, however, I’ve been a bit suprised by the warning labels on the plant/flower food that has been recommended to me. That seems like something that could be made safely (I’m making that assumption based on my 48 hours as a gardener…perhaps I am wrong)</p>
<p>One of my flowers is potted, the other three I’m going to put in my side yard once we get done weeding that area. I’m mixing compost in with the dirt but am looking for plant food to give everything an extra chance at surviving my beginners efforts. </p>
<p>I live in south Texas. In a nutshell it’s hot, hot, hot. And humid. Oh, the humidity! Nearly everything is in direct sunlight and we have low acid dirt. </p>
<p>If anyone wants to share a plant food recipe, a recommendation for a natural store bought one or tell me why I’m nuts to not take advantadge of the ones with warning lables, I’m all ears. Also, any tips for gardening in general. THank you!</p>
<p>Kate, congrats! Gardening is a fun and fruitful activity. It is also very nerve calming - when I’m mad at something or someone, I go outside and pull weeds. :)</p>
<p>My parents had a small farm. I’ve been growing green matter on my own for more than two decades, but I prefer not to make my own plant fertilizer (I hate dealing with chicken manure, and it is hard to make good fertilizer without chicken manure). I do make my own compost and use it to enrich the soil in my veggie garden beds. I buy organic plant food for my veggie garden at a local nursery (I will look up the brand name in a few monemts when I go outside to water the garden), but I leave it to Monsanto chemists to feed my non-edible plants and lawn grass.</p>
<p>Good luck with your gardening efforts! Here is one tip: if you decide to grow veggies and berries, be prepared for a major war - you will not be the only one who will want to enjoy those plump, juicy strawberries ripening in your garden.</p>
<p>I have been a gardener for years, and learned a lot from my mother, who was an organic gardener in the '60s, when no one else was. (My sister and I laugh about how everyone is finally catching up to her). You’ll want to be minimalist with any use of plant food. Too much is just as damaging as too little. If you’re using a good-quality compost, you really don’t need anything else. I like mushroom compost. (I’m too lazy to make really good compost myself although I do use my garden waste to make a mulch.)</p>
<p>I am slightly obsessive about my lawn–I use it for dog training–and I do fertilize that. I use a local brand of organic fertilizer and read ingredients carefully because if it has fish meal my dog will eat it. </p>
<p>I grew up helping in the garden in Philadelphia, and I’ve gardened in Boston, the California Bay Area, the Seattle area, and now in Portland (OR). I’ve been astonished at how very regional gardening is. What works in one area does NOT work in another area. Even the 200 miles from Portland to Seattle has meant that I have had to learn yet another way to deal with roses. </p>
<p>Consequently, I would suggest you find a local garden club or nursery with a good staff (which means a small local one that does its own growing) and ask them. You may get lucky and find a local book–but don’t use big fat tomes that purport to cover the whole country. They don’t. </p>
<p>I would look for Mediterranean plants. Rosemary, lavenders etc as well as what ever plants are native to your area. They grow in dry poor soil, in fact better than they do in rich soil.</p>
<p>You also can grow a lot of things in pots- inc roses, which is much easier to control the feeding and water than in the ground.</p>
<p>30 yrs ago I walked into one of my college classes and sat down at the lab bench. I opened the side drawer. I called what was inside “dirt”, I received a talking to by the professor that it was not called “dirt” but “soil”.
Sadly though I made it through a semester of “soil science” I still can’t get much to grow in my heavy duty clay soil. Some local communities run a special on compost bins. They are an easy way to get started on composting and they don’t look unsightly. Another idea is to start a worm composting bin.</p>
<p>Thank you all so much! This is so interesting. My own efforts have not gotten off to the best start; last night one of my pups dug up the flowers I had put in a pot I thought was too heavy and tall for him to get too. It was sad to see them strewn about my deck plus all the dirt, too. </p>
<p>So, back to the beginning…and now I’m going to put that pot/flowers outside the fence!</p>