Are you ready for one stinky post?
It's coming, prepare your masks cause this greeny liquid you are seeing in the bucket is the stinkiest thing I ever smelled, but behind that stench are hidden wonderful nutritional minerals.
I've already mentioned this wonderful fertilizer somewhere in my posts a long time ago, the time has finally come to make it.
Nettle fertilizer is most suitable for gardeners who are engaged in organic production or at least aspire to it, for now we are sticking to the organic idea, but at the same time we are paying the price of low yield or prematurely destroyed seedlings.
You are all already familiar with compost and it is, so to speak, a solid fertilizer that needs more time to settle in the ground, but what if we need more urgent nutrition for plants?
Make them liquid, because liquid dissolves much faster than solid fertilizer [which most often requires rain as well]
From just one kilogram of nettles, you will get about 10 liters of fertilizer, which you will later dilute with water and thus get 20 liters of liquid nutritious bio-fertilizer!
Sound tempting?
[prepare a bucket with a lid that you will only use for this purpose, because of the unpleasant smell]
Pour 10 liters of water over the nettles, cover and store in a dark place at room temperature, in the next two weeks, stir occasionally, and then strain the liquid [in essence, straining is not necessary, I did it because I don't want to plug my fav toy aka sprinkler], and that's it you are having all your plants needs!
But what does nettle actually protect the plant from?
Simply put - it boosts the immune system, same benefits like when we consume it + it also drives away pests.
Stink bug season is starting, nymphs are already visible all around, and I just want to get rid of them in the most painless way.
If anyone has any kind of suggestion what else might help, I am all ears!
Now let's move to the garden, and check out how my dungeon is doing, literally I'm slave last days, mostly we hop in the garden in earlier hours but somehow I always caught myself getting out of it at late noon, - time flies or I'm moving too slow?
Today's catch!
Green beans eventually began to bear fruit, but only after the second blooming because the first cycle was mowed down by the recent hail. I was already half convinced we will have nothing to harvest and beans convinced me I am wrong, only thanks to their ability to regenerate fast.
3 hand fulls are enough to put a smile on my face because I know every bite will be an explosion of flavor.
Zucchini do not give me such joy, but I am extremely glad that we already have a lot of fruits, and some that will arrive later [because my mother-in-law mistakenly planted 8 more zucchini, thinking it was a cucumber]
Me not happy, cause what the hell am I going to do with them?
Probably sell, according to the current price [peak season], kilogram costs around 2€ [keep in mind zucchinis are heavy fruits], and I can freely add few cents on the top of it as it's organic babe.
Potatoes survived beetle attack, please, give an huge applause to mu dear darling who tirelessly removed them manually for days, until they completely disappeared.
The aerial part of the plant looks quite desperate at this stage, but that is perfectly normal as we are slowly getting closer to harvesting the tubers. But the drying of the leaves does not mean the end of pests, annoying potato beetles with a little effort can easily reach the fruits in the ground and continue their destruction there.
Fingers crossed that won't happen!
Cabbage is gone, not too happy with the outcome, the heads were too small and due to a lot of sun and rain they started to crack, then comes rot for the sake of prevention, it will be safer in a delicious salad.
Talking about salad, cucumbers...
This is what the seedling I experimented with looks like right now, wonderful! I honestly did not hope that it would succeed, after all the frosts and hardships. Dear darling made a spot for them, so if you have old pallets, they can be an ideal solid solution that cucumbers will enjoy crawling on, cross a few ropes and there you go!
Usefully aesthetic.
Baby cucumber growing at full speed, followed by many yellowish flowers. The catch about cucumbers is that they aren't much happy when in water even tho they adore it, keep the flowers out of it and everything will be fine.
alt3rs little helper around tomatoes, joking she just popped in for short cuddle and few rolling in the dust.
Yes I'm also living my childhood currently walking around barefoot.
Tomatoes are doing almost great, considering they got nothing except nettle fertilizer and a bit of baking soda I should be more than happy.
We are still fighting phytophthora infestans by manually removing infected branches and seedlings. There are a handful of fruits, and I would be extremely sorry if they perish after so much work and effort. But time will tell, chemical treatment is still out of the question.
Specimens similar to this one are torn off, will not reach the ripening stage, and are a real bait for pests.
Cherry tomatoes are in full bloom right now, we are especially looking forward to them!
In about two weeks [depending on the weather], the onion will be ready to be picked, the green part is longer and not so green and is largely in the drying phase, together with garlic.
And it's the turn of the most pampered queen of the garden.
Paprika, hoeing innumerable times, constant trimming of saplings emerging from the stems, and lots of watering.
She literally drinks my blood and sweat in order to grow. Only about 10 seedlings died [which is a totally negligible number compared to the how much we planted].
Guess who?
Potatoes beetle kindergarten straight on the paprika leaf, I pissed off so badly spotting them, like you hadn't already enough?
Beat out of here beetle!
Smacked!
Trimming is very important for peppers, with this technique you direct all the growth energy into the fruit and the strength of the stem. Let's not forget the occasional stem covering up with the earth.
Tiny future paprika to be! Can't wait to fry them in the pan with tomatoes and onions. 🤤
The flowering phase is progressing well, although unfortunately it is suffering the same pain as the tomatoes, I hope to save the plants until the very end by manually removing the rotten leaves, more duties to come!
Raspberries, not so juicy but sweet, these berries enjoy a lot of water, they actually need it in order to have that perfect refreshing taste. Some seedlings have their first fruits this year, we have already eaten them mostly while we are in the garden, they serve us as snacks.
[more watering, write it down]
That's all folks!
We're nearing the end, but I have a trick question for all gardeners before I finally end this post, can you recognize what this is?
Hopefully you enjoyed and found something useful for yourself (:
Ohhh the stinky stuff... Mum has a bucket of that too. I don't know what's worse. The nasty look or smell of it :p I think she said it also helps for aphids, but can't be sure now.
All veggies look good! And my fav... tomatoes and zucchinis <3
I accidentally spilled a bit on my shoe, almost start running from myself 🤢
Oh boy, it's a death race between what is worst.
Hopefully we will have plenty of zucchinis, eager to adopt some?:D
Always!!
So many things you can do with them. Just today I saw some cake recipe :p
You saw? And haven't shared with me! (cry)
There there....
https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/800163058811763532/
and
https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/294915475613350007/
Watch and drool.
Or better... make it :D
Pinterest is evil!
Also this one. No zucchini, but my oh my.. is it gorgeous or is it gorgeous!?
https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/385691155602806274/
Just died watching last one. You are evil, don't blame on Pinterest 😭
Dammit what to make first🤦🏻♀️
I refuse to suffer alone!
Stinky? I don't smell anything weird while seeing your post :D
Ok, huge applause :D
But wow, indeed, that is called patience!!
Haha, that is great. Though I didn't like to walk barefoot when I was a child, I do it now. Hm, the only thing is that I am missing a garden 😁 so I am barefoot in the apartment. I guess it doesn't count 😂
My mom said their tomatoes plants are rotten from the crazy quantity of rain :(
Hahah, I'll change your mind when you come :p saving special one glass only for your nose :D
Patience and gut to touch them with bare hands, I can't stand them crawling 🙈
Balcony also counts! It helps me reduce the pain [almost like massage] I'm having occasionally as my veins are about to pop out!
Terrible to hear, weather is serious enemy this year, everyone are complaining including my mom, she also struggles with high moisture, our garden is on contrary sunny whole day, no moisture only burns.
I believe you, no need for me to check it out 😂
You have a really lovely garden 💚. Growing your own veggies and fruit requires some effort, but if you take it as a hobby, it becomes a lot of fun. I'm no expert, but guess what, use nettles to repel leaf aphids. As you say, after ten days, fertiliser is obtained, but if you soak for only 24 hours, an extract is produced which repels leaf aphids. Pour into a spray bottle and spray on the leaves. Apply it for a few days in a row. For me is working perfect! Maybe it will work on your bugs too. And it's going to stink too 🙃🤣
Gimme something that smells nice 🤣 I enjoy working with hands and being outdoors [that's a huge plus for me as gardener], but most of the time is physical job [especially during summer days when the sun shines bright like a diamond, huh].
I also heard about milk/nettle mixture for aphids and boring bugs that sucks life out of plants - never tried it tho.
It's first time I'm applying it, have no idea will it work, still waiting.:D
24hrs should make it less stinky than two weeks.🤣
It will definitely work, you just have to believe in it very passionately 🤣 My grandmother used this for many years back when there was no fertiliser available.
It certainly stinks less after 24 hours, but it still stinks 🤣😂🤣
In that case I'll definitely consider cutting the soaking hours. 😆
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