Winchester Gardens Fertilizer Report

Most of us have put our trowels away for the season, but we gardeners can't stop thinking about our plants and planning for the next season. As you start planning for next year, now is a great time to reflect on what worked, and what didn't work, in your garden over the past year.

I know you remember my article on Winchester Gardens Fertilizers. I want to share with you the results.

You'll recall that we carefully marked the vegetables that were fertilized, as well as the hanging baskets. Within less than 2 weeks we saw a marked difference in the vegetables and fruits  that were fertilized versus those that weren't. The results weren't scientifically controlled, and were even less documented, so you'll have to take my word for them.

I was impressed with the jump start that the plants received; they were clearly helped with the addition of the fertilizer. For the strawberries, we could tell which ones were fertilized just by glancing down the row. Huge, healthy leaves were much bigger than their counterparts. The production remained the same across the board in the fruits and the vegetables, as well as those in our good well-composted Hugelswales.

Here are the hanging baskets that we trialed. The green basket with the zip tie was the fertilized container.

Here they are one month later. The growth and bloom was about the same in the beginning. The fertilized container's blooms outlasted the unfertilized far into the season. Time released fertilizer is the way to go in containers!


Next comes our famous herb spiral. This is a brand new bed this year, and I used the organic herb fertilizer on every plant in the bed. Not very scientific, I know, but I did want my whole bed to be as productive as possible. I could not be more pleased with the results. As you can see, all of the herbs performed fantastically.

It's no secret that Dave and I advocate gardening naturally and building soil. As part of that, there are times when using fertilizers is a right and proper option. I'm pleased with the options of Winchester Gardens, especially the organic options for the fruits, vegetables, and herbs. I plan on using them again in the 2013 growing season. Two green thumbs up!