It’s good to feed your plants – Diary of a Rocket Gardener

I wanted to share this photo this week as I think it’s a really good example of why it is so important to feed your plants. Earlier this spring, I relocated all my strawberry plants to a new bed.

There are some 120+ plants (I’m quite excited for my crop!) and they are now all in a single, long bed. Before planting them, I added a thick layer of multipurpose compost on top of the existing soil. It was just at the beginning of lockdown and I didn’t have enough to cover the whole bed, so rather than delay planting I decided to carry on, popping half my strawberries in the fresh compost, and the other half in the soil with no compost.

The difference in growth has been huge – the plants in the compost are so much bigger and healthier looking – they are the ones in the foreground of this picture. I was quite surprised myself at the difference, as the soil quality is not bad in my veg patch. But what a difference!

You don’t have to add loads of compost though – there are other things you can add to the soil to feed your plants:

  • Homemade comfrey feed (soak comfrey leaves in water for 2-3 days)
  • Homemade nettle feed (as above)
  • Seaweed (just cover beds with it)
  • Bought liquid feed (follow the instructions)
  • Wormcastings (mix with water in a watering can, or simply sprinkle over the soil)

Whatever you do, it will definitely help your plants to have that little bit more food and nutrient content in the soil and you’ll have healthier, thriving plants as a result.