Secret organic fertilizer recipe + epsom salts

This is the Iris bed apres weeding and clean-up.  A much better vision.  Here’s a little about the ‘treatments’ going on in The Cedars Garden to ensure healthy plants and, where applicable, great blooms.  Please bear in mind most of this activity wouldn’t usually be taking place until a month later – we are unseasonably mild here on the BC coast this year.

• The Iris beds and the roses had a light sprinkle of Dolomite lime to bring up the PH.  Both plants are NOT acid lovers and need a bit of this in the spring and the fall to create their happiest growing conditions.
• The roses all had a handful each of alfalfa meal.  They had a handful of epsom salts a few weeks ago that helps root growth and prepares the plant for better uptake of fertilizer and the alfalfa meal helps in production of healthy and attractive foliage.  The usual rose food mix won’t be applied till the first of April.  If applied before it will stimulate too much growth in the still coolish weather.
• Herbaceous perennials like hosta, Siberian Iris, cransebill, heuchera, plus fruit trees, shrubs, etc. etc. all got a handful of the secret organic fertilizer.  Actually, it’s no secret at all.  An excellent gardener and his wife – Al and Liz Murray from here in Cobble Hill – developed this mix years ago and the entire Cowichan Valley uses it for just about everything!  Here’s the ingredients:  4 parts alfalfa meal, 4 parts canola meal, 4 parts blood meal, 2 parts dolomite lime, 1 part rock phosphate, 1 part bone meal, 1 part kelp meal and 1 part green sand.  I treble the recipe for my larger garden every year.  Buckerfields have all the ingredients in tubs like the bulk section at a grocery store, but if there is no Buckerfields near you, most garden centres or nurseries should have most of the ingredients, particularly if they also cater to farmers. I am delighted to see all the hellebores all over the garden are in bloom.  Above is the haul we made over to Phoenix Perennial’s Hurrah for Hellebores sale last week.

With the Iris bed and long bed cleaned up and weeded, I am continuing around the property outside our kitchen patio, below the kitchen windows and heading for the Parthenon.  More on what the Parthenon is soon.

Finally, I also planted some Oriental lily bulbs (actually LOTS of Oriental lily bulbs) in various spots along the long bed for additional colour for the garden tour.  These are wonderful work horses in the garden.  They are upright and don’t take up too much space, are tallish and provide vertical interest, and the blooms are glorious and long-lived.  One of the best gardeners I know once told me if you have a small space tuck in a lily or two as your garden progresses.  As always, it was great advice.

A reminder, this blog is attempting to describe the steps I’m taking in my garden to prepare the garden for display on the Cowichan Family Life Association’s annual fund-raising Garden Tour.  As often mentioned, the tour takes place on June 6, 2010.  Here is the website address with all the details:

http://www.cowichanfamilylife.org/events/gardentour.htm

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