Advice needed from experts
I do the garden work for my grandmother's house, it was built in 1982 and was told the plants were planted shortly after that, the plants around the brickwork and back wall in question
I am noticing they are growing very slowly these days. possibly due to age or lack of nutrients ? maybe 2-4 inches growth a year maximum, certain areas or corners of the plants are also not growing as well as the rest of the pant, the soil also seems very fine "dust like" and compact, most likely due to age ..
What fertilisers can I buy from say Bunnings that will help give these plants a bit of a pick me up and also add nutrients into the soil to help with growth
please let me know any suggestions
thank you
by Belv6
5 Comments
Chuck some seasol and try and aerate around the topsoil of the plants
It looks very dry. Perhaps regular deep watering first, then a general purpose liquid fertilizer like seasol and use as per packet instructions.
The soil looks super dry, I would buy a bunch of bags of good quality compost and cow manure, and mulch the garden beds with that. You could also add wet-a-soil which helps decrease the hydrophobic properties (water repelling) of old tired soil. Possibly even a layer of pine bark mulch over the top also, to keep the moisture in and give the soil organic matter to slowly break down over time 🙂
When you water, does the water pool on top of the sand and not absorb straight away?
The fact that there’s healthy plants in this picture and the others that havent been clipped suggests the clipping was the culprit or at least revealed damage.
They may have suffered heat stress in hot summer conditions. They appear to have recovered though.
Other possibility is they’ve been infected by fungi or suffering root rot. Make sure you sterilise the hedge trimmer.
Itd be wise to spray them with a copper based fungicide like eco copper and water in phosphoric acid root rot treatment.
Diosma should be fertilised with native fertiliser like neutrog bushtucker. Water some into each plant to encourage recovery.