Content
- Must ground cover be fertilized?
- When ground cover should be fertilized
- The more demanding ground cover culture
- Moderate fertilizing with much pruning
Ground cover usually need no fertilizer
Must ground cover be fertilized?
Ground covers are considered as easy-care greening solution for Lazy. A more targeted use of creeping plant carpets, however, may require a little nursing work - not excluding occasional fertilization.
When ground cover should be fertilized
The groundcoverers are especially popular for their uncomplicated style. Most varieties require little care due to their vigor and robustness. In addition, they are volunteer weed fighters on larger areas, favor the soil quality through continuous supply of moisture and nutrients with their shallow root system and harmonize the garden picture with their uniform plant cover.
Basically, the following applies to ground cover:
All these features actually speak against fertilizing. On the contrary, excessive stimulation of growth can lead to faster but less structured development and also to damage.
The more demanding ground cover culture
The cultivation of a ground cover behaves a bit differently if it is used deliberately for ornamental purposes. For example, in carefully arranged bedding plants with changing shrubs and low plants, in the decorative rock garden or in artistic pattern planting on graves. Here are ground cover to look neat and should be maintained accordingly.
Moderate fertilizing with much pruning
Especially if you place small, accurately defined groundcover pads as conscious structural elements between other plants, you should keep them compacted and kept in shape regularly by surface and edge support. Depending on how fine the contours are to fit into the overall picture of the garden, this can happen about four times a year.
In this case, you should grab the ground cover but in parallel with some fertilizer under the arms. Because the constant cutting can weaken him. Nevertheless, the application of fertilizer should definitely be modest and only the main vegetative phase should last through the summer until mid-autumn. In order to avoid over-fertilization, it is advisable to first give the groundcover in early spring a permanent fertilization, preferably in the form of organic fertilizer such as compost or horn shavings.
But even when reintroducing the growth phase, you should rather distance yourself from artificial fertilizers. They are aimed too much at rapid growth, which can burn the ground cover certainly. In addition, the effect of artificial fertilizer only briefly before. If the groundcover is severely attacked by excessive cutting, you can also moderate give it some universal liquid fertilizer.