Lesson 1: Preparing The Soil
Side Dressing
Just about midsummer our gardens start to droop a bit and everything looks a tad tired and spent. Side dressing can revive your flagging garden and get it going again. It’s a very easy way to add more flower power without risking fertilizer burn. Applying high nitrogen based fertilizers in hot summer temperatures is not a wise thing to do. Many home gardens get fried by this practice.
Side dressing your garden is simple. Simply create a shallow 1-2” deep furrow alongside your rows. You can use a systemic fertilizer, bone meal, phosphate, or fish or kelp meal. I prefer the fish or kelp for its gentler, more sustained action. You can mix up your own custom blend for use whenever your plants need it.
Some plants, such as tomato and corn, are very heavy feeders and require a constant side dressing to really perform well. Some gardeners make a circle around their tomato plants. I prefer to create a row, as any back splashing off the feed can cause leaf burn.
It is much better to under-fertilize your garden. Over-fertilizing can lead to burning of foliage and the destruction of root systems. For this reason the use of organic feeds like fish or kelp can truly minimize this problem. Foliar feeding in the very early morning or late evening, using a dilute solution of a liquid kelp or fish emulsion, can help with greening up tired leaves. Learning how to fertilize your plants will help you become a much more balanced and successful gardener.
