Hi, this seems like a silly questions, but here goes: how do I add compost to an established cottage garden? I have quite a few self seeding plants (a good thing in my opinion), so how do I add compost, without burying those loveable little seedlings. For instance, I have forget-me-nots & foxgloves sprouting now & I don't want to bury them, so close to spring, when they bloom. Thanks!
Liz
Adding compost to cottage garden
My only suggestion, Liz, is to use the compost as a side-dressing/ mulch after your sprouts are of a decent size, IOWs, when they won't be buried up to their necks in compost. And any time you lift or divide a plant, try to add as much compost as you can to that area.
HTH!
Thanks Pagancat!
Yes, I agree, not much else you can do.
When I was in my late 20s, I had some elderly garden-friends I'd visit. They would take a 5 gallon bucket of composted leaf mold and on their hands and knees scratch it into the soil with one of those 3-prong scratcher things....very gently. Ona warm spring day with the sun pouring down on you, it was quite pleasant, although she had to tell me to be more gentle several times, I feel like I got the hang of it. They had 5 acres and a garden running the perimeter of the property, all the way down and around. There were also a lot of island beds...really attractive ones. No matter where you were, you could walk right up to plants and reach in to stake them, or deadhead, and stay on turf (without walking on the soil). There was a deep dip running across the front and all-in-all it was one of the prettiest settlings in Indianapolis.
I depend on all my poppies, larkspurs, and cosmos to reseed. And I love to add compost. I just sprinkle a light layer around in the early spring and the seedling come up through that, then when I edit out a few of them, I add more and scratch into the soil like llloquin mentioned. I am forever adding it in small amounts. I put larger amounts around my roses, as mine is really a cottage style rose garden. I throw every banana peel out under my roses, sometimes scooping up the mulch and laying them under it. I also take the coffee grounds and tea leaves out daily too. For me it is a constant thing. When I dig up a plant to give to someone, I refill that hole with compost.
Thanks all for the suggestions & detailed instructions.... sounds kind of tedious, but I'm looking for an excuse to spend the day in the garden, now that the rain have stopped...
Liz