The World of Fertilizer: Again

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Hello Readers. But really I mean reader which means you, H, since I believe all others who have stumbled over this blog have quit reading due to boredom. Thank you for being blood-related to me too much to give up. And if you aren’t reading this, well then I’m just talking to myself, so by the way remember that you just left a very important document on the scanner that needs to be dealt with shortly.

The only interesting gardening think I’ve done lately is water plants. They are doing much better due to the fertilizer mentioned in the previous post. In thinking about the whole situation, I’ve decided to rewrite the last post. I know you were bored the first time round…

Still here? I have no idea why, but here’s the re-written post for you:

So the few potted plants out on the balcony were not doing hot dying. With a degree in horticulture I probably should actually care about gardening and have a lush little book-worthy mini-garden out there. In reality in takes about of month of zero growth from my plants and bright yellow leaves before I realize those plants need fertilizer.

Even then I probably wouldn’t do something except I needed stuff at Target and Home Depot happened to be next store. So I ran over there (literally because it was raining) and went to go buy a fertilizer.

Drawing on a hazy memory of scientific posters from school, I knew I needed a fertilizer with something like a 5-1-2 ratio. If you have no idea what that means you can simply buy the first thing that is labeled for what you are growing and leave within a sane amount of time. There’s not much fun in that though. I looked at the gobs of miracle grow and thought of how it is the devil of gardening. Maybe they have something angelically organic instead.

Then I realized that shopping at a hardware store for a chemical fertilizer also probably falls into the devil category and stopped looking for organic stuff. (Not a big fan of “organic” anyway, but let’s save that for another post.) I’m back looking for a 5-1-2 ratio.

Miracle grow turned out to be an epic failure at providing me the desired ratio. You would think some company would take advantage at what experts are recommending, but after staring for five minutes I have found zilch. I’m still looking for that stupid ratio….and found it! (or close enough):

Hmmm…it’s labeled for trees and shrubs. I really have no idea why you need different kinds of fertilizer for different kinds of plants. Varying amounts, sure, but nitrogen is nitrogen. (Well actually, it can come in various chemical forms…but the labeling is still very off).

This stuff should work fine. Got to be better than a 10-10-10 miracle grow, since phosphorus is frequently over applied in the home garden and hence destroying waterways and possibly the whole ecosystem. It’s slow release granular which appeals to the lazy side of me—I can put it on once and be done. It also happens to be cheap! I have a hard time arguing with price tags.

My containerized pots got a good helping of evergreen shrub fertilizer. The fertilizer shelf at home depot got a D- grade from me.

Summer =

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  • Lots of TV, especially cartoons. Watching more cartoons than you are supposed to feels just like summer.
  • Swimming. This time we went in the lake with friends.

  • Parks. I found one with a merry-go-round. As they are nearing extinction, I was very excited.

  • Random indoor play. Any guesses to what this diorama is?

  • Here is a preview of what we are doing this weekend (and it won’t be in the living room).

This is meant for babies.

A post wouldn’t be complete without some chubby baby picture. This kid is starting to love to smile. He gives me lots of grins, I love it.

The World of Fertilizers

Did you know that most fertilizers on the shelf at hardware stores are not based on good science? There seems to be a plot to get us to over apply phosphorus, which is bad for the environment. They have taken phosphorus out of lawn fertilizers, but non-lawn fertilizer still have incorrect fertilizer ratios, resulting in the continual overapplication of phosophrus in our gardens. Garden chemical suppliers at hardware stores are not doing a good job of getting us products that are healthy for the garden.

I went to home depot to get some fertilizer for my potted plants outside. They haven’t been growing well, mainly because I have not put any form of fertilizer on them. Potted plants are difficult to grow successfully without additional fertilizer. I was looking for something fairly cheap and easy. When I got there I stared at the shelf in bewilderment. I knew I wanted a fertilizer with an unbalanced ratio, something looking like  5-1-2, and I wanted a slow-release granular type for ease and to avoid over application. At first glance, nothing was close. I finally found this:

I am using this on potted herbs and flowers. It was the closest I could find to what I wanted. It was interesting looking at these fertilizers marketed for different kinds of plants. Fertilizer is fertilizer and tomatoes, lawn and flowers all use the same chemical stuff. They tweak rations and percentages but its all marketing and not based on good science.

The general public will often go to a store if they have a problem with the garden, or need a good product. Most of the time they don’t come prepared with the knowledge of what they actually need. When they get there, they find a lot of chemical-junk products. I found out that even if you go knowing what you need and what would be best for your plants, the product is often just not there. What results is a lot of overuse of chemicals. Unfortunately, if you want a decent garden and reduced chemical use, you usually also have to have some sort of garden training. Without it, it is easy to get overwhelmed by the massive amount of horrid chemical products on the shelf.

I’m not necessarily again chemical use: I have yet to grow a completely organic garden. Chemicals, including pesticides and inorganic fertilizers, can be part of sustainable gardening, mostly as a last result. But walking into Home Depot they seem like the only option and often the ones that are heavily promoted are poor products. I can never seem to find the type of low-impact chemical solutions that I would also recommend to people.

What I would like to see is gardening education in the store so that you can walk into a store and the most sold and promoted product is also the one that is best for your garden. Right now there is a great divide between what is recommended by experts and what is actually on the shelf. If we really want sustainable and smart gardening to take off, it’s going to have to happen in the hardware stores and garden centers as well as in blogs and book. Authorities can recommend practices and types of products all they want, but to really be effective the products need to be available on the store shelf and marketed correctly.

A Lot for a Single Post

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We made it on a four mile hike, but ended up killing Joe’s neck. He can hardly move it today. The hike was fun, we went to Laurel Ridge around Lake Lanier and down by the Chattahoochee. The Chattahoochee part resulted in watching this. It took over four hours, but that included a stop for lunch and lots of exploring. Great weather. I miss hiking, but I think it’s not going to happen for many years. It’s not the most toddler friendly to go on hikes much longer than a mile. Peter still had a lot of fun.

There is almost too much fun things to do around here. The pool for our complex opened last week and it’s lots of fun to be able to walk over and go swimming whenever we want. I’m always finding new parks to go visit: there seems to be an unlimited number of parks 20 minutes from our house. At one park we visited three different playgrounds in it on the same visit and there were still more!

I have really awesome kids. I was thinking about terrible twos and tantrums, and Peter is far more enjoyable than terrible. Curtis has been sleeping through the night for a while and has started smiling more.

Sometimes to get Peter off the computer I will take whatever he is doing and move it from the screen to real life. He was watching a clip about a dump truck over and over. I couldn’t think of a good replacement for dirt, but I did need to cook dinner. We cut veggies and used the dump truck to transport them to the dish. A sink full of soap and toys is also quite a bit of fun, although he’s not too interested when I actually need to clean some. We also made simple but cute paper bag puppets that don’t decapitate the animal when used.

We had a great time visiting my sister-in-law over memorial day weekend. Peter was running around with huge smiles on; he loved playing with his cousins. The good photos in the set are from Becki, she’s an excellent photographer and one of the best parts of visiting her is the photos we come home with.

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Underutilized Smells and Space

I went to a friend’s house to look at her garden and she had nice tomatoes growing. I haven’t grown any tomatoes due to lack of sunlight on my balcony, and a newborn right at planting time. I didn’t realize what I’d been missing out of until I put out my hand to touch the plants and got a whiff of one of the most beautiful smells in the world. I adore the smell of tomato vines, and currently I can’t think of smell I enjoy more. I might plant one as a fragrance plant, even if it’s a little late and shady to actually get tomatoes. I know that ‘tomato vine’  isn’t necessarily categorized as a  pleasing smell, but its one of those smells that is richly associated with good memories for me. What smells in the garden or elsewhere are like that for you?

I saw this nursery while visiting some family in Huntsville, Alabama. It’s off the side of a highway underneath some high tension power lines. It’s strange shape is  only about 30 feet wide, but a half-mile long. I didn’t get a chance to visit, but snapped some pictures while driving by. I think that it is a great use of space that can’t be used for much else. It reminds me of research I’ve heard of that grows biofuel crops on highway right-of-ways. Location is a part of sustainable agriculture, and both example show how agriculture can fit into places that are frequently wasted.

Definitely not Perfect

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Here’s some pictures that show how photo shoots don’t always go as planned.

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My last attempt at Charles Dickens: I got to the word epoch which is in the first sentence. I realized I didn’t know what it meant. I have a Kindle now, so instead of just blowing over the word because it doesn’t affect the understanding of the overall story (what I normally do), I looked up the definition. Then I realized I didn’t know how to say it. So I looked up that too. And then I got off on the pronunciation manual. Several clips resulted in much laughing. Oh wait. I was reading a book…made it another few paragraphs and found another word I didn’t know. I gave up before I finished the first page.

One more thought: in this life the journey to perfection is far more important that actually being perfect.

Friday Randomness

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I’m nearing the end of another week, haven’t done a post, and still don’t have anything specific to write about. My boys are awesome, and cute. So I’m sure everyone wants pictures first. The camping ones are from fathers and sons.

I love Atlanta. There is tons to do around here, and lately the weather has been perfect. Today we went to the Southeastern Train Museum. It’s super close to our house: I actually found out about it from driving by on the way to get groceries. I checked the prices online…wasn’t sure I wanted to go. Then I found out that our library has free passes to check out. Sweetness. I had a great time, so did Peter. He loved the model trains and Thomas set in the gift shop. I liked imangining what it would be like to ride in a cramped sleeping car. I also learned more about sorting mail on trains while Peter stared at the model train far longer than I was interested in it. Who knew that old, run-down trains could be so interesting?

The weather is awesome. The boys and I go to parks a lot. Tuesday we went down to the park on the Chattahoochee. The playground was fun, and the river was beautiful. Peter fed ducks and geese goldfish. (You really aren’t supposed to feed the fowls. It’s bad for them. I know that. But it’s also making childhood memories.) It reminded me a lot of going down to the duck park as a preschooler. We fed the ducks bread, and had picnics, and I was still called Elizabeth, not Liz. I remember my dad giving me under-doggies on the swings, and I was scared at how high I was going, but asked for more too. Some of my best first memories are at that park. I’m hoping I’m giving my kids memories that will stick too.

One last funny from Peter. I try to avoid sugary cereals. We were at the store getting a movie and donuts and I decided to go ahead and get a box of fruit loops. Peter was so excited that cheerios came in different colors. “Look cheerios mommy, red, blue, green!” I had to inform him that they weren’t actually cheerios but fruit loops.  He kept calling them hoop-da-loops.  They are his favorite now, so I decided to bake half the box into a lemon square dessert. (I was combining two recipes and it didn’t turn out. Edible, but nothing like I was expecting.)

The New American Landscape

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While at the library, I saw this book sitting in a display on gardening. I had been eyeing the book for a while and immediately took it out of display and checked it out. (I’ve always wondered if this is proper library etiquette. Should one keep the display intact, or is the display made to get the books checked out?) This book is now added to my increasingly long list of books I’ve checked out from the library and read but now want to actually own. I’d love to add some notes and mark it up a bit. In the meanwhile, a short book review will at least capture some of the information in this book.

The book is a collection of essays from various experts and authors. The different viewpoints contributed to an arching theme of sustainability. The editor writes this about sustainability:

The accepted definition of sustainability is to meet present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet theirs. Applied to gardening, this means using methods, technologies, and materials that don’t deplete naturals resources or cause lasting harm to natural systems. (pg. 9)

Within the collection of voices, the interpretation of sustainability in the garden was varied, although there are several principle that hold true throughout. Some principles that I found include:

  • Reduced resource use, including chemicals, fertilizer and water
  • Planting adapted plants
  • Working with, not against, nature
  • Using more natives
  • Contributing to soil health
  • Creating landscapes that are productive
  • Planting a larger variety of plants

I actually wrote a senior paper for my horticulture degree that was in the same topic as this book. I’ve always liked the idea of making our landscapes more a part of nature, rather than a doorstep from inside to wherever else we are going. This book is a great intro and in-depth look at sustainable gardens, including information on sustainable solutions, meadows, natives, wildlife, climate change, edibles, green roofs, waterwise gardens, and soil health. I gained a better grasp on water gardens and permaculture, two concepts that I head a lot about but had yet to understand how to go about.

Most of the authors avoided being too doomsday sounding or preachy, instead presenting tangible benefits of gardening sustainably, and using scientific references. (One essay did make be cringe a bit. I would rather be persuaded to do something, not guilted into it.) This is a great read if you are at all interested in sustainable gardening.

Amicalola Falls

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We went and hiked Amicalola Falls on Saturday. It’s the first time I felt I really got a cardio workout in since I’ve had Curtis, and it felt great. We saw mountains too, I’ve kinda missed them. (Very different from the Rockies, but still mountains.) The hike itself was a lot of stairs and a wheelchair accessible path. There’s actually lots more hiking trails in the park, but the stairs and path were enough for our group.

We went with these wonderful friends, which made it lots more fun. The waterfall and surrounding area were beautiful. We even made it to a bird show, at least until Curtis got fussy and I left to take care of him. Hiking with two kids is fun. I packed Curtis and Joe persuaded Peter up the stairs or on his shoulders. I felt like we had so much stuff for just a few-hour hike, both Joe and I had a bag, but we needed almost all of it.

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Blossoms Tour Part 2

Continuation of previous post

When I visited the third house, I noticed this formal planting on the drive:

Much of the garden close to the house was formal in nature, but there was a more naturalistic gully as well.

I loved this potting bench, although I would love to see it covered in potting soil and not made up for the tour. 

The outdoor living space, complete with pool, fireplace, grill, good company and much appreciated water. 

 

My first impression of the last garden was that it was bland, and the front yard was. But the back yard resembled a flower show. The highlight was not necessarily a functional garden, but rather various garden-themed scenes spread throughout the garden, beautifully decorated for the tour.

There’s a chandelier off the gazebo…very cool. 

I loved the colors on the umbrella, echoed down into the place setting. 

They were even playing French music to go along with this French cafe scene. 

Adorable bird feeder…or squirrel feeder based on the statue.