[NTHockey]

FINALLY, getting something OUT of the gardens for all the work I put IN.

Buttercrunch lettuce, pickles, cucumbers, Little Finger eggplant, string beans (slow this year), mint. Tomatoes still green. Finally, after 3 years trying, some squash growing. Radishes in window boxes are almost ready to harvest.

Question - after growing season, which goes first - fertilizer or herbicide?

[greeneyes]

Congratulations on the produce grown so far. Regarding your question-I don’t use fertilizer or herbicides per se.

I add compost to my gardens after harvest and then grow a cover crop for the winter work into the soil for “green manure” in the spring.

I pull any weeds manually or sometimes lay down newspaper or cardboard to smother weeds.

Occasionally, I use some of the slow release fertilizer pellets to side dress veggies or some liquid fertilizer with extra potassium and phosphorus mid way through the season. More likely to side dress with bone meal, crushed egg shells, and Epsom salts.

Alfalfa meal is a good source of nitrogen, and generally gives the most return for the money spent.