What's your feeding regime?

[SueA]

I tend to add handfuls of whatever I 've got at the time of planting, sometimes chicken manure pellets or blood , fish & bone but this year I've also tried Miracle-Gro Organic food & a boxed organic potato feed. They seem to have done the trick although I have also fed the fruit & veggies with the odd liquid seaweed feed & the tomatoes with a liquid feed. For baskets I find the easiest thing is to pop a couple of slow-release granule feeders in at the time of planting.

[nick the grief]

""- bit like the posh kids that never play in the dirt where as the ragtag's with their arse hanging out of there trousers are as tough as old boots . ""

Thanks Nick, that explains why my kids were hardly ever ill, too much playing in the dirt. I thought it was down to my maternal skills...

No offence intended

...My plot has been left to the wild for about 6years so as I'm clearing the brambles, old bikes and bags of dumped rubbish I'm covering with rotted down horse manure. Is this going to be ok initially for all beds or should I be adding lime etc now?

If it's been left errr "fallow" for a few years it will probably be OK this year without the manure as the undergrowth will have rotted into the soil over winters. As a rough guide if you've got things like Docks flourishing then there's a good chance your soil is acidic but a proper test would tell you exactly what''s needed but will cost you around £16.

You won't need manure on the bits where you're growing your carrots etc but things like cabbage and spuds won't mind it but if you have clubroot on the patch it will make it worse as it like the more acid conditions but you could always raise them in pots and plant out with a bigger root ball and water them in with a solution of water and lime.

If you're just clearing the soil then putting a layer of muck on won't hurt but the winter( or rather summer) rains will wash the goodness out so I'd put it on then cover with black plastic and the worms will incorporate it over the winter for you.

[Kayt]

No offence taken whatsoever.

I've cleared about quarter of plot and covered it with manure and then thick cardboard. Another quarter wasn't too bad and had been covered with carpet so I've just dug that and grown a few bits there - spinach, broad beans, radishes which have all done ok. I'd forgotten how exciting it is when they actually grow and look like the picture on the packet I may just clear and cover with card the rest and then test before planting. Decision Decisions!! A lot of this is trial and error I suppose. I've already put a soil test kit on my christmas pressie list
Thanks for your help

[Two_Sheds]

I sprinkle a little blood fish and bone powder when I plant my brassicas out. If I remember.

I give a liquid comfrey feed to fruiting plants (ie. not root crops because I don't even water those) once a week if I remember.

I have good crops. As others have said before, you should work on improving your soil with well-rotted compost & manure. Feed the soil not the plants.

Unless you garden in pots, which quickly run out of feed & water, so you have to do that yourself.