feeding and watering

8.6eWe’ve swapped and planted and now it’s a summer long of watering and feeding. You’re invited to take part. Scroll down to the bottom…

Comfrey – smelly but the plants love it. This morning I’ve given the broad beans a foliar feed of diluted comfrey tea. Plants can get a quick fix by taking in nutrients through the leaves, so watering over the plant (when it’s not sunny) with the rose (sprinkler) on the watering can is a good way to give the plants a boost. Comfrey is particularly high in potash – good for fruits and flowers and I think

our beans can do with a bit of a boost to fill their pods.

I also took off the growing tops so our plants can concentrate on making beans. Click here to read more about comfrey from another blog, http://vivekagardens.com/bocking-14/

Seaweed extract – a real tonic. We’re also using diluted seaweed concentrate as a tonic. Seaweed extract contains all sorts of micronutrients, including the element Boron, for instance. Boron is essential to cell division, and growing plants make a lot of new cells. Our pumpkins in particular are sulking quite a bit due to cold nights, I think, so hopefully the seaweed extract will give them a boost. SM3 is a completely organic brand from farmed seaweed.

In other Bandstand Bed news, Victor has kindly completed arrangements for filling the water butts with plumbers Jason  and Tony re-making a standpipe adjacent to the beds. Victor also oversaw corporate volunteers making a bean row at the pumpkin beds with hazel poles that were left over from making the pond at Brockwell Park. Big thanks to Victor and Lambeth Parks/Veolia (that’s their watering cans we’re using).

Want to get involved?

Would-be waterers and for membership info click here.

Jason fills up butt
broad bean tops
new bean row