We don't like to use anything that isn't natural in the garden if we can avoid it and there are two reasons for this. Firstly, its cheaper, simple! Secondly its safer for us not to have chemicals around the place with the wee man on the scene and with his sibling due in less then 10 weeks. Therefore we need to know what is the natural answer to getting the most out of what your growing. Some of it is obvious, using homemade compost to add to the soil, collecting rain water for water but what about a homemade fertilizer? Recently I did an interenet search for this as some flowers Maxine had planted were recommended to use it. The answer came in the form of Garden Tea. At first I though at that was a bit of a stupid name, and I dont like tea, but as soon as you put the first batch together you see why folk call it that.
The original recipe I found for this suggested filling any sort of water container with rain water and pulling up some weeds and putting them in the water. You then simply leave it for 2 weeks and hey presto! you have homemade fertilizer. I took an old 10 litre bottle and filled it a quarters full with loose weeds and then just filled it up with tap water - not the exact recipe but the idea is still the same. And the plants are looking great!
It works, of this there is no doubt but the other way I've found to make it is with grass clippings!As the plot has so much grass on it, it makes sense to do it this way!
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| The plot for our smallholding with our flat in the background (1st floor) |
A good batch of nettles works wonders too, Malcolm! We use to chop them down and throw them away, now I do not buy commercial plant foods anymore. Seaweed and compost teas can be made too!
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