Comparing Bamboo Fertilizers

We decided to do a comparison of Milorganite and Scott's Organic Choice Lawn Fertilizer for our bamboo (which is technically a grass!). We chose three Harbin Inversas and three Bissetii and randomly assigned one of each variety to receive either a cup of Milorganite, a cup of the Scott's Organic Choice, or no fertilizer. The before pictures are below, taken March 17, 2013.

Bissetii Before: (left-to-right)  No fertilizer, Organic Choice, Milorganite 

Harbin Inversas Before: (left-to-right) No fertilizer, Organic Choice, Milorganite

We don't know whether fertilizer makes much difference for bamboo. Some of the healthiest bamboo we have seen are growing wild in huge groves. It's such a hardy plant and our beds are supplemented with composted rabbit manure already. But after the winter, our plants are looking pretty beaten, and we wondered whether they might recover faster with the help of some fertilizer. 

Milorganite (NPK= 5-2-0) from the words Milwaukee Organic Nitrogen is recycled biowaste from the Milwaukee sewage treatment system. It has been around since the early 1920's and is popular as a lawn fertilizer. It contains iron, which leads to faster greening, although not necessarily faster growth. It's the nitrogen that helps the growth, as I understand it. Some tests show Milorganite is free of pathogens; it is heat-dried at a high temperature. I am all for supporting this kind of recycling effort, although I have not used it on my vegetables because there is some controversy about the safety of it for edibles. However, if you spend enough time on the internet, there is controversy about safety for just about anything (tap water, manure, wood mulch, watering cans, hoses, rain barrels, you get the idea), even products that are labeled as organic. I read as much as I can stand, but most of the time there is no clear answer and I make a pragmatic choice.

Scott's Organic Choice lawn fertilizer was the comparison (NPK=11-2-2). It is not a synthetic product, so won't burn plants. It is low on the odor factor (Milorganite is stronger). It's made mainly from feather meal, bone meal, and blood meal. Our dog loves to get into it. It costs about the same per pound as Milorganite. We used it last year on the bamboo, but since they all got a dose, we don't know if it made a difference.




We will post the results of our little experiment after shooting season. Does anyone have any experience with these two products? We'd love to hear your thoughts.

What Gets Me Through the Winter

Thank God for the pile of garden books and seed catalogs that brighten the darkest corners of winter. On days when it's just too miserable to go outside-this is "never" for my husband, who can be found turning the compost or checking on the bamboo when the temperature is 10 degrees and ice covers the yard- I count on my colorful garden books to keep me going. I have read and re-read my favorites so many times that it's not really reading anymore. I am studying intently, hoping to absorb the wisdom and gardening experience of the dear authors who have become part of my garden psyche over the years. Here is a list of the best and most beloved of those books.

#1 Most useful and most used: The Vegetable Gardener's Bible, by Edward Smith. Ed is the gardening father or neighbor many of us don't have. Reading his book, I feel like I am learning from a master who also happens to be a humble guy who just loves digging around in his garden. This is the best book to start a garden with. Ed will lead you through understanding soil, compost, organic methods, and why tilling is neither necessary nor a good idea. I pull it out almost daily through the growing season to get advice on seed spacing, water and nutrient requirements, when to harvest, and how to cure the harvest for storage.

Rosalind Creasy's Edible Landscaping is the best for lovely garden pictures combined with intelligent musings. Rosalind is a passionate advocate for improving the world through gardening, and she shares her expertise through gorgeous, lush pictures and detailed descriptions of a variety of gardens. Rosalind shows us how vegetable gardens can be beautiful front-and center, rather than relegated to the back corner of the yard. This practice of putting the garden far away from the house has always puzzled me; my garden has gotten closer to my kitchen over the years, where it is much more likely to be used, cared for, and enjoyed. Her perspectives on the wastefulness of lawns, conserving water, and spreading the word through community sharing and education make gardening a calling, not just a personal hobby.

The Complete Compost Gardening Guide by Barbara Pleasant and Deborah Martin. This book really expanded my understanding of different ways to achieve the same result: the black gold we all know is so important for our soil. I especially love the "comforter compost" idea and have been using it on beds that have been harvested for the year and for starting new beds. 

Designing the New Kitchen Garden: An American Potager Handbook, by Jennifer Bartley, and Taylor's Weedned Gardening Guide to Kitchen Gardens by Cathy Wilkinson Barash. I love these books for their photos and design inspiration. Bartley includes plans that bring out the inner landscape architect in the reader, and Barash has a great section on edible flowers.  

Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle lacks the glossy pictures but makes up for it in a series of engaging essays that take the reader through a year of eating local. Kingsolver shares her efforts to grow food for her family and make good use of the resources in her local community. The recipes are really quite good and tailored to the harvest. She can be preachy at times, and I love that about her; she's earned the right through her tremendous efforts and serious explorations of what it means to garden when food is so widely available in prepackaged form.

My First Post

Greetings, fellow garden lovers! I know I'm in good company eager for spring on a cold day in early March with snow in the forecast. Blogging is brand new for me, but seems a pretty good substitute for being out there.  I have posted pictures of the garden as it evolved over the past two years on my Planning and First Year pages of this blog, and will document our progress and share what we have learned. I appreciate any feedback or suggestions!

So far this year, we have added lots of composted rabbit manure to the beds and started onions, parsley, and lettuce. The straw-covered beds are garlic planted last fall from our own seed stock (German White hardneck). There are tiny garlic shoots already- they started in the fall and never really died back.          

Below are 2 week-old lettuces (Black Seeded Simpson and Ruby).

I started onions from seed this year for the first time. They were planted in trays the first week of February and are now about a month old. When they reach about 4 inches, I trim them back to direct energy into bulb growth. Each tray contains about 75 plants (Copra and Red Bull, purchased from Fedco Seeds). I spaced them closely and will tease them apart gently when I plant them in two weeks. I will also grow some onions from sets this year so I can compare sets vs. seeds. Parsley is growing to the right (about a month old). Parsley takes some time to germinate. I had heard that pouring boiling water on the newly planted seeds helps; I did this and they came up in 10 days.