Wow, the recent rainfall was a real benefit to our lawns and gardens here on Bribie Island and surrounding districts but thank goodness we missed out on the large hail storm that plummeted the darling downs which finished off their strawberries, stone fruit and custard apples that were almost ready for harvest this month. It was devastating to all affected.
As you drive up our local streets, most lawns are green with envy- once again and it seems our spring season has been delayed in comparison to this time last year. The first week in September in 2017 reached 28 degrees back then but now in mid-October, we are only hovering around a cool 24 degrees, with wind and rain about also. I guess the humidity is going to be a cracker this year towards Christmas and all the outdoor workers will have their shirts hanging near their ankles- wringing wet from excessive sweat. But now it’s time to get stuck in the garden and try and control those pesky weeds that have literally flourished everywhere. They seem to grow ten times as fast as the lawns do, and it only takes about a week of damp weather and the seeds will have germinated once again. There is still a lot of winter grass growing strongly in lawns around the place and these can be a pain to control as they set seed and re-emerge next winter seemingly out of nowhere if not attended too.
Great time to get out and fertilise your lawn and plants if you have not already done so? Sometimes the wet weather can cause some leaching of valuable soluble nutrients especially in sandy soils. The best thing to do is apply some organic slow release fertiliser which not only fertilises your lawns and plants but helps build up your organic levels once again. I am asked a lot about different fertilisers on my consultations and I thought I would elaborate a little more today. I have created my own blend of fertiliser which has a high carbon content, called: FERTIL8-Gold. ® This fusion blended fertiliser is combined with some very special ingredients that benefit our sandy soils here on the coast, especially when combined with my concentrated seaweed blend: KELP 8- Blue® which is part of my soil rebuilding range of products becoming available later on this month. If you want to know more, please see my contact details below.
When it comes to fertilising, it quickly becomes apparent the different individual needs for certain food crops and as a result some special prescription blends of fertiliser will become necessary. For example, if you were to use mainly manures, as fertiliser for lawns or food crops in general, it would also depend on whether any of these manures will have been composted and assimilated into the soil profile to produce plant available nutrients during the growth phase to be of any benefit, before harvest. This is why its best to plan your food gardens well in advance and have your soil enriched and enlivened with composted manures, blood and bone and worm castings. Once this has been achieved, regular applications of organic fertilisers dusted around the root zone several times a year and fertilised with fish, seaweed or molasses, will ensure the plants vitality and soil fertility needs are met. The beneficial bacterial and fungal strains respond well to the gibberellins and amino acids contained in the seaweed, which also benefits the plants root system creating healthy plants naturally.
The Happy Horticulturist.