Shrub fertilizing is often overlooked in most landscapes. Most people concentrate on fertilizing their lawns, but forget or neglect to fertilize their shrubs. Shrub fertilizing is just as essential as fertilizing your lawn. In fact, you may have more at stake in your landscapes then you do your lawn. Lawns are easy to revitalize if they become nutrient depleted. Shrubs can sour and die before their course is corrected. Shrub fertilizing will replace nutrients in the soil that have been depleted by the plant material in your lawn. Shrub fertilizing can also increase the health of your plant, the size of your plant and the overall color of your plant. Just like lawn fertilizing, there are right and wrong ways to fertilize your shrubs. Using the right products at the right time is important to ensure the best results for your shrubs. Consider your landscape beds as an extension of your lawn. You mow your lawn weekly right? You fertilize, water and apply insect control to your lawn as well. Shrubs will also benefit from weekly or monthly monitoring or servicing. If you are dedicated to making your lawn look its best, then why not your landscape?
Shrub fertilizing options for your consideration.
There are several ways to approach the process of fertilizing your shrubs, meaning how the fertilizer is applied. The most common ways of getting nutrients to your shrub are listed below.
- Root injections- This type of shrub fertilizing requires a soil probe that is inserted near the base of the shrub. The probe is usually inserted a foot or so in the ground and then liquid fertilizer is injected into the ground. This helps reduce run off and makes sure that the fertilizer reaches the root system of the plant where it can be absorbed.
- Soil drenches- Mixing your concentrate into a liquid form allows you to saturate the ground surrounding the shrub with a liquid fertilizer. Products such as Miracle grow allow you to mix a dry material with water to form a fertilizer solution. This solution should be poured around the base of the shrub according to the label directions. Make sure that you do not dump the product on the foliage of the plant. Also, do not apply too much product at once as it will run off and not do any good.
- Fertilizer spikes- Shrub fertilizing with spikes is pretty straight forward. You take a fertilizer spike and insert it into the ground around the plant. The spike breaks down over time and releases fertilizer for several months.
- Granular fertilizer- There are granular fertilizer products in the market that aid in shrub fertilizing. These products can be sprinkled around the base of the plant and watered in to activate the product.
