Tag Archives: Fertilizer

Get your garden off drugs with Gardener & Bloome organics

11178306_10153247983568766_7162902230157459950_nWe want to help you kick that drug habit for good, in your garden that is. This past weekend we showcased our favorite organic line, Gardener & Bloome. We gave away a ton of organic fertilizers and soils in our effort to send your gardens to rehab. Sure conventional fertilizers have their purpose, and we’re definitely not against them by any means, but there’s a place for everything! We want to educate you all on the benefits of keeping your edible gardens organic!

There’s the obvious, that you don’t want to put synthetics or chemicals onto the food that you will be eating, but it is also important to not put chemicals into your soils either. The Gardener & Bloome line offers many different soils and amendments that can safely and naturally enrich your garden beds without the use of harmful synthetics or chemicals. The Harvest Supreme is our favorite for edible garden amending. It can be used as a top dress or mixed in with last years garden soil to give it that boost of nutrients your plants need to thrive this season.

As far as fertilizing goes, we always encourage the use of compost, but if you need something more we recommend Gardener & Bloome organic fertilizers. We have liquid concentrates as well as granular options for just about any area of your yard and garden. For vegetable beds we like the Tomato, Vegetable, and Herb granular fertilizer. It’s very low maintenance and easy to apply, this granular can be mixed into the soil pre-planting and/or broadcast over the top of the soil to be watered in after planting. G&B fertilizers are fortified with calcium, humic acid, and other nutrients to provide just the right balance to make the fertilizer easily accessible to your plants. While organic fertilizers can take a little longer to show results, they also last a lot longer than conventional fertilizers meaning less work for you! G&B organic granular fertilizers only need to be spread every 2 months or so throughout the growing season giving you more time to enjoy what gardening is all about!

We also retail a Gardener & Bloomes organic liquid concentrate in three different varieties for those of you who like to water in your fertilizer, which is great for baskets and planters! Our favorite is the All Purpose liquid fertilizer, because it can be used on everything from containers to garden vegetables and even trees or shrubs. It’s molasses based for added nutrients and sugars that your plants need to thrive, and couldn’t get any easier than mixing directly into your watering can!

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Come by to chat with our experts about any Gardener & Bloome product, or soils and fertilizers in general. We are always happy to help you get exactly what you need to be successful in all your gardening endeavors. Plus, ask us how you can save a dollar on ANY Gardener & Bloome product now through June 1st.

Fall Lawn Care

I don’t know about you guys, but I am SO ready to say adíos to the lawn mower for the next few months and hello to sweaters, scarves, and pumpkin spice lattes…with fall temperatures getting closer every day you should be starting to think about getting your lawn prepped and ready for winter. This time of the year is the most important time to fertilize your lawn, as it is getting ready to take in any available nutrients before it goes dormant for the winter. The better you feed and prep it now, the healthier and more lush it will come out in the spring.

We recommend using a combination of lime, winterizer fertilizer and soil activator to give your lawn all the neutralizers and fertilizers it needs to come on lush, full and green in the spring. The Lime will restore the ph levels of your soil to provide an optimal growing environment and also discourage moss growth (which that alone is enough of a reason to love it!). Winterizer Fertilizer enriches the soil with all the nutrients your grass needs to remain healthy. A lot of these nutrients are found naturally in the soil however, have most likely leached out with all the watering that was done during the summer heat. It is important to feed your lawn, just like any plant, if you want top quality performance from your grass. Finally, Soil Activator encourages microbial activity which more quickly breaks down organic matter, including grass clippings, to increase the natural foods your grass will be looking to take up. This also helps to naturally aerate your lawn, promoting water retention and overall healthier grass.

These three components should be mixed together at an even ratio and distributed now, and then again following the last mow of the season. As I mentioned, grass is looking to stock pile on food and nutrients now before it goes into it’s winter hibernation. The more prepared it is for the cold winter temperatures the better and stronger it will be in early spring when we all want our lawns looking fresh and green for the start of a new season.


 

You can hear more about this topic from our expert himself Caleb Johnson, tomorrow evening, 9/18/14, on KEZI 9 and Johnson Brothers’ “In the Garden” segment.  Also, this saturday 9/20/14 out here at the nursery you can come chat one on one with the experts on lawn renovation from 9am to 12:30pm. Make sure to bring soil samples from different areas in your yard and we’ll test them for FREE from 11am to 3pm, giving you a breakdown on soil composition, nutrient content, and ph levels.

We carry everything you need to create a lush green carpet next spring, so come on by this weekend for complementary snacks and info. Can’t wait to see you all here!

 

Got Yellow ?

Ironite Greens Your Yellow Plants

Summer time and the livin’s easy… but maybe not quite as easy for your yard. This time of year the sun is out and the heat is on and your plants need a lot of water! With frequent watering it’s easy for fertilizers and nutrients to leach out of the soil leaving your plants starved for what they need most to take the heat. It is typical during the summer months to see faded yellow  where there was lush green only months ago; whether it be your lawn, garden vegetables, or ornamental shrubs and trees it is easy for plants to get exhausted.

Luckily there are ways to maintain your lush greenery even through the hottest months, and aside from the time it takes to do it—it’s pretty effortless. Of course there’s the obvious—keep your plants hydrated! (And yourself too!) On those scorching 90 degree days you may need to double and even triple up on your watering. Drooping leaves and dry soil are easy to spot indicators of plant thirst. During the hottest parts of the summer you also want to give your plants an extra dose of fertilizer to counter act that leaching out I mentioned. We recommend using a slow release fertilizer—our personal fave, Johnson’s Maxx throughout the growing season. Typically a slow release should be applied every three months or so—an easy to remember schedule is: April Fools Day, Fourth of July, and Labor Day. However, during the extra hot times it doesn’t hurt to throw in an extra application between July and September. If after consistent watering and an extra dose of food, some of your plants are still looking a little weathered you can give them a “shot in the arm” with some liquid iron. This is applied as a foliar spray and only takes about a week or so to see the results, as compared to fertilizer fed through the roots can take time to kick in.

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Recently we noticed some Hydrangeas and Rose of Sharron that were looking a little yellow and not their best. We hosed them down with our favorite liquid iron concentrate, Ironite, and took some before and after pics to really assess the results. Here’s what a little iron applied right onto the foliage, in the middle of the day even, can do for your plants!