Using fish in the garden?

[BeckyW19]

Hi everyone,

Thanks for taking the time to read this post. I am new to this forum and also allotmenting so any advice would be very much appreciated

My father-in-law has some fish stored away in his freezer which are a bit beyond human consumption now. I hate throwing food away so was wondering if anybody knows of any way they could be used in the garden? I'm not sure how compatible fish is in wormeries or on a compost heap.... Is there any way I could turn it in to some sort of fertiliser?

Thanks

Becky

[rustylady]

If you use this fish in any way in your garden I think you will attract not only the neighbourhood cats but also every rat in the locality too.

[PyreneesPlot]

Hi and welcome to the Vine.

Decaying fish is perhaps the most stinky thing imaginable, so painful as it is, sometimes you just have to bin things. Why do you think they are beyond eating?

[BeckyW19]

Thanks for both of your replies.

They have been in the freezer now for a good few years and are covered in freezer burns.

I was hoping there was some way of turning them in to a liquid feed which could be diluted. As I said before, I hate throwing food away

[veggiechicken]

Hello Becky and welcome!
Can you boil it up and feed it to a dog/cat? Mine don't worry about use-by dates

[poly]

Hi Becky, it's not something I've ever used but I have come across fish heads and guts being used as fertiliser on some US gardening forums, normally fish heads etc are put into the planting hole or buried close to whatever you are trying to feed. Seems quite popular there and is traditional to use fish in this way. I'm not sure about making a liquid feed though, you would need a very strong stomach to use it as it would stink to high heaven. I think it also likely to attract a swarm of flies!

[WendyC]

A fish based fertiliser is used in the pine forest near my mum in Suffolk. The smell is truly horrendous.
Do add your location to your profile so we can all avoid the area if you go down that route!

[Two_Sheds]

I'm not sure how compatible fish is in wormeries or on a compost heap...

I compost ... well, everything.

Fish scraps, meat, oil, fat, bones, all of it. I wrap it in newspaper first to keep the flies off, then it goes in the hottest bit of the heap (that's usually in the middle, near the top)

[dim]

I use biobizz fish mix every 2nd week as a foliar feed to all my veg and plants .... they love it

however, not so sure about fresh fish

I recall reading an article, that Indian Americans used to place a sweet corn kernel into a fish's mouth and bury it in the soil where it would grow .... the decaying fish fed the plant and they used to have very good crops