GARDENING: ‘TEA’ FOR YOUR PLANTS
Gardens — big or small, on balconies or on rooftops, all require nourishment if they are to continually produce bountiful crops and gorgeous flowers. One of the easiest and most cost effective ways of doing this is to feed your plants, on a weekly basis during their individual growing seasons, a healthy, incredibly rich, completely organic, drink of a brew called ‘compost tea’.
All gardeners are familiar with the rotten, recycled material as ‘compost’ but not all gardeners have the space, or the patience to make this. It can be bought readymade and ready to use, providing that it is guaranteed 100 percent chemical free. Plants relish it but the cost, can be prohibitive. Compost tea is a far cheaper and an easier-to-apply option.
Actual compost is mixed into or applied on top of garden soil and/in the soil being utilised by plants being grown in pots and other containers. Compost tea, on the other hand, is simply diluted with water and either watered directly on to the soil or, if being applied as a foliar feed, strained through fine muslin and then sprayed on to plant leaves — either way it gives the plants an immediate nutritional boost.
Due to space restrictions, full directions on brewing a variety of compost teas will appear in this column in two weeks’ time. Please be patient until then.
Nourish the plants in your garden with a rich, organic compost brew
Sowing suggestions for March