Improve Your Garden dirt By Adding Fertilizers

Everyone must eat to live. With no regular source of starch, protein and other nutrients we would all very rapidly die. Flowers have a different procedure. They use carbon, hydrogen and oxygen from the air as well as the water in the soil so as to manufacture their own starch and sugars. All they need from the dirt is a quantity of simple chemicals that they then use to produce all the amino acids, proteins, vitamins and enzymes etc. All soils contain a stock of these vital chemicals generally known as plant nutrients, they come from the mineral part of the soil (sand, clay, etc) as well as from the humus it contains (fallen leaves, dead roots, etc). When the ground is cultivated and garden plants grow in it, the balance is often upset. Essential elements in the soil are diminished quicker than they are replaced by natural processes. The most serious loss includes three key elements - nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. They are known as the major plant nutrients, and are required in large amounts if the plants are to grow as expected. This means that these key plant nutrients have to be replaced on a regular basis. A percentage will be provided if organic dressings like compost or manure are applied, but we must use fertilizers for the main source of supply. A fertilizer is the substance which offers appreciable quantities of a number of the major plant nutrients without adding considerably to the humus content of our soil. A bewildering variety of fertilizers are available in garden centres nowadays - organic and inorganic, straight and compound, liquid and solid. The decision is all yours. Do bear in mind, however, there is no 'good' and 'bad' fertilizers, they all have a job to do and the correct choice depends on the plant, dirt type, area concerned, time of year and so on. The golden rule should be to feed plants on a consistent basis, but no greater than what the package recommends. If you are in any doubt whether to feed or not, then let yourself be guided by the vigour of the plants. Fertilizer test kits are readily available, but the analysis of these results can be difficult for the everyday gardener. By law the maker of a product which is described as 'fertilizer' must declare the nitrogen, phosphates and potash content on the package. The content of most other nutrients must also be declared when they are added to the product. The meaning of the words and figures on the package: N = Total Nitrogen P2O5 = Total phosphates P2O5 soluble in water = Phosphates which are immediately available P2O5 soluble in neutral ammonium citrate and in water = Phosphates which are immediately or very quickly available P2O5 soluble only in mineral acids = Phosphates which are available slowly K2O = Total As an example: You purchase a bag of fertilizer, on the front it has three numbers on display, in this example let's say, 3:6:9 more often than not in red. What does this mean; number 3 refers the nitrogen content, so this fertilizer contains 3.0% N (nitrogen). The number 6 refers to phosphorus content, so this fertilizer has 6.0% P2O5 (phosphates or phosphoric acid). The number 9 refers to potassium content, so this fertilizer contains 9.0% K2O (potash).

An amazing quantity of my time is spent in my garden, but as I am getting older and things have become harder to do. I have decided to use a firm called Landscaper London.. So far they have given me all the help and advice that I have asked for. I still do a bit of pottering around my own garden.