Every time I pass one of those compost tea barrels sitting outside a Whole Foods store, I wonder if I should buy a few gallons to throw on the garden. HA! Now I know better: as Jeff Gillman notes in his latest book, Decoding Gardening Advice: The Science Behind the 100 Most Common Recommendations
(Timber Press, 2012) it's never been scientifically proven that compost tea will improve the soil. In fact, he says, plain old compost and mulch will do a much better job.
Gillman, an associate professor in the Dept of Horticultural Science at the Univ of Minnesota, teamed up with author and editor Meleah Maynard to sort out the the truth and falsehoods of gardening advice. The book is divided into chapters on subjects like soil, watering, pest and weed control, and general care for annuals, perennials, bulbs, trees and shrubs, vegetables, fruit and lawns.
For each subject, Gillman and Maynard explain what is "good advice," "advice that's debatable," and "advice that's just wrong." For example, it's good advice to plant trees in holes that are two to three times the diameter of the root ball. It's bad advice to put gravel at the bottom of containers to improve drainage, because it actually makes drainage worse. A better option, say the authors, is to mix perlite into the container soil or medium.
Also -- and I loved, loved this one: it's not necessary, folks, to change the soil in containers every year. Unless your plants are showing signs of disease, you can simply add a little compost to the container to provide additional nutrients, and you can follow this method for two or three years before dumping the soil out (into the garden or a compost heap) and starting anew.
Even if you have a beautifully manicured garden, there is wisdom in this book that will save you a lot of time and money, and there are garden do's and don'ts you'll find amazing. Every gardener, every garden designer, will benefit from reading this volume.
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