Why You Need To Fertilize Flowers and Vegetables and What Type Should You Use

There are many products available to the gardener. Some make it very easy to fertilize. Feeding potted plants and flower boxed growth can be started by simply using product made for closed containers. Miracle Gro Potting Mix is our favorite. The beauty of this kind of product is that it's perfectly set to give a flower all it needs for the season. Miracle Gro offers organic matter that helps keep moisture in the soil and also allows for good drainage. It also has time release materials in the mix that with disperse the nutrients for six months! That's excellent! Once the plant is potted in the mix, it's good to Grow for the rest of the season.

Scotts makes a garden soil mix that's much re same adding organic matter and slow release nutrients that will offer healthy growing conditions for three months.

Of course there are also organic materials that are beneficial to plants and flowers. Reading a good garden book can help you make better informed decisions on what is needed for the kind of plants you intend to grow. I use bone meal for bulbs I plant. It's a very slow release natural product that will feed my bulbs for years to come allowing for good growth and a healthy root system.

Peat moss is another organic matter that is excellent for most gardens in giving texture to the soil allowing it to both hold water and allow air to get into the soil for optimum growth.

There are also time release pellets and such that can be broadcast on gardens. Spreaders are a good tool for proper measurement. If only using it for a small area you can pick up an inexpensice hand held spreader that makes for a quick easy job that spreads the nutrients evenly.

Understanding what kind of nutrients particular flowers and plants need can be found in good gardening books but also be sure to read the packaging and also ask the sales people what kind of mix is best for your kind of plant.

An example are acid loving plants like azalias and rhododendroms that need formulas like a 30-10-10. Other plants may not call for the same amounts of Nitrogen, Phosphate and Pottasium. Many manufacturers like Scotts has premixed fertilizer perfectly blended for the plant or flower you like.