Compost/Liquid feed.

[bramble]

And thank you Bramble for your feedback. I can understand those points you make. But please you or somebody tell me if you are prepared to make your own liquid feed and when used with cheap compost your vegetables and flowers will grow well.

I have made liquid plant feed from nettles many time, i also live on the coast and brought home somes seaweed in the autumn and dug it in over the winter months.i have now lined the potatoe drills with seaweed.
I do have a smsll corner for growing nettles so, you see I am trying.

[lolie]

Good point Lollie.

It's a lesson I learned the hard way.

[spamvindaloo]

Cheap compost is not just expensive compost without the nutrients. Cheap compost can be awful stuff with bits of plastic, wire, huge chunks of wood and all manner of other nasty rubbish in it.

Also, I think that you have to have permission to take seaweed from a beach and that it may be illegal in some cases to do so (haven't got time to search for this at the moment but I recall something along those lines).

[cheops]

Being illegal to take seaweed from a beach? You may well be correct. However when Susie my young Labrador and I stroll down the beach on the sand is living attached seaweed which when the tide decides to return it comes alive swaying with the water but still attached. Morally illegal or not I wouldn't dream of taking this seaweed. But on the tide line there is detached seaweed doomed to follow each tide before it dies completely. This is the seaweed I take.
During one of the last storms which all of the U.K. seemed to have many parts of the coastal road was littered with seaweed that had been uprooted and carried over the sea walls by the stormy sea. One particuliar lay-by was covered green with seaweed and I noted the council never removed it.It was months later before it all disappeared. To where I don't know, it was just a gradual disappearance.

[ESBkevin]

Compost will not only feed the plants as it breaks down, it also creates life in the soil and gives moisture retention and drainage assistance, non of which artificial fertilizers can do. Over a period of time applying lots of compost you can eventually get away from much fertilizing at all (we are talking a number of years and it depends on the intensity of cropping). See Patrick Dolan you tube videos of one yard revolution.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQpACENc3WE
Making your own compost is just common sense and adding those nettles to it all helps (before they flower though). Nettle and comfrey tea are easy and free, if a little smelly. Nettle for leaf growth and comfry for fruit and flower stage.
It is generally thought that most UK soil contains all the minerals required and the fungus within compost enables the roots to access it readilly.
I have found sources of free composting material within the locality, try the local churchyard where they heap up the autumn leaves and cover it in grass cuttings. Local parks too will do similar. Neighbours will contribute to your heap (I get grass clippings and rabbit hutch cleanup). I also collect plain brown cardboard, I place it on the soil and mulch over, then pierce and plant. It provides weed suppression, moisture retention and a longer term food source for the crop. More cardboard in the compost heap.
Finally for the men, there is a rich source of nitrogeon in urine, you need to dilute it 20-1 and apply it to the soil not the leaves. Otherwise stick it straight on the compost pile to speed decomposition (no too much though as it smells if you do it daily for a couple of weeks).
A little effort and no money can get you all you need. Pile it on and let nature do her thing.

[Bigmallly]

Otherwise stick it straight on the compost pile to speed decomposition (no too much though as it smells if you do it daily for a couple of weeks).

Is that the voice of experience Kev?...................

[cheops]

Thanks ESBkevin, very useful stuff. I take it nettles before they flower is because if not you are spreading the seed for the nettle to unwanted parts of your garden?

[ESBkevin]

Yes Cheops you don't want the damn things in the growing beds. Best harvested from footpaths and the like early in the year. Did I mention long sleeves, gloves, forks and rakes?

Bigmally! what a thing to suggest, I assure you I smell on nothing but roses and fairy dust, I don't understand why I don't have more friends though. ;-)

[Alison]

Some peeps dont want to grow nettles to make plant food.

I've never deliberately grown nettles (although do usually have some at the side of the plot ) but just collect from verges. Can't imagine there are many people who can't easily source nettles on verges and / or waste ground so no need to grow your own

[Mr Bones]

I've made liquid feed from washed up seaweed (mainly bladder wrack). Stir it daily and within a couple of weeks or so the brew takes on a glossy silky look and is ready to start using. I topped up with rainwater each time I took some out and it lasted weeks before it was spent and subsequently added to the compost. It smells lovely too, just like the sea. Mine was diluted about 5-1 but I guess it would stand to be weaker. Likewise, I think you'd have to go a long way to overfeed with it. Toms in particular loved it.

[Dalrimple]

does it have to be seaweed could pond weed have the same outcome ?
I live about as far from the coast as you can get so havesting seaweed would be far to costly and the comfry and netle stuff is a bit to stinky to use in the home garden !
atb Dal