"Mike Lyle" wrote in message
oups.com...

David (in Normandy) wrote:
"Rupert (W.Yorkshire)" wrote in message
...
No you need 0-0-0

You can buy fertiliser with 0-0-0 it's called "Pea Shingle" and should
be
applied 1 inch deep ;-)

Short of the 0-0-0 ideas, I don't think an unbalanced fertiliser is the
way to go. If you noticed any difference at all (and in the short term
I suspect you wouldn't), I think you'd probably just wind up with
rather unhealthy grass, or perhaps grass which sent up rather more
flowering stalks than usual.

just dont fertilise it.

rob

I have a flower bed with bark and only rhododendrons. I am trying to
discourage grass and weed growth around them. Recently, I mistakenly
applied lawn fertilizer to the rhododendrons and it burned their leaves, but
luckily survived. Lawn fertilizers have a lot of nitrogen, which actually
caused the leaf burn. But this gave me an idea.

Instead of using weed killers, which might seep to the rhododendrons roots
after a rain, has anyone tried to apply a bad fertilizer to the lawn to
stunt their growth? Is this too far fetched an idea?

What might discourage grass growth? Something like 0-10-10?

Tom

Hi Tom.

I wonder where you are living. I'm in West Wales where rhododendrons
flourish so much that they're despised by many. One of the main reasons
for this, from what I can work out, is that NOTHING will grow beneath a
spreading rhododendron apart from the odd highly adaptable fern and a
bit of moss. I hear that even when an old rhododendron is removed the
ground is "good for nothing", all its normal qualities vanished. So, I
know this solution demands great patience, but just WAIT and when your
rhodies are big and umbrella-like, nothing, including grass, will grow
inside and under!

Ellie.

"Tom" wrote in message
...
I have a flower bed with bark and only rhododendrons. I am trying to
discourage grass and weed growth around them. Recently, I mistakenly
applied lawn fertilizer to the rhododendrons and it burned their leaves,
but luckily survived. Lawn fertilizers have a lot of nitrogen, which
actually caused the leaf burn. But this gave me an idea.

Instead of using weed killers, which might seep to the rhododendrons roots
after a rain, has anyone tried to apply a bad fertilizer to the lawn to
stunt their growth? Is this too far fetched an idea?

What might discourage grass growth? Something like 0-10-10?

Tom
No you need 0-0-0

Ellie Bentley wrote:
Hi Tom.

I wonder where you are living. I'm in West Wales where rhododendrons
flourish so much that they're despised by many. One of the main reasons
for this, from what I can work out, is that NOTHING will grow beneath a
spreading rhododendron apart from the odd highly adaptable fern and a
bit of moss. I hear that even when an old rhododendron is removed the
ground is "good for nothing", all its normal qualities vanished. So, I
know this solution demands great patience, but just WAIT and when your
rhodies are big and umbrella-like, nothing, including grass, will grow
inside and under!

The real bad thing about them is that they do very little for British
native species: beautiful for a month, but a dead loss aesthetically
for the rest of the year, and environmentally all the time. But when
they've reached the stage you describe, they make the most wonderful
dens for children. We had a magical clump with a stream running through
it which my children made their very own, and which will live in their
memories for life.

--
Mike.

"Rupert (W.Yorkshire)" wrote in message
...
No you need 0-0-0

You can buy fertiliser with 0-0-0 it's called "Pea Shingle" and should be
applied 1 inch deep ;-)
--
David
.... Email address on website http://www.avisoft.co.uk
.... Blog at http://dlts-french-adventures.blogspot.com/

David (in Normandy) wrote:
"Rupert (W.Yorkshire)" wrote in message
...
No you need 0-0-0

You can buy fertiliser with 0-0-0 it's called "Pea Shingle" and should be
applied 1 inch deep ;-)

Short of the 0-0-0 ideas, I don't think an unbalanced fertiliser is the
way to go. If you noticed any difference at all (and in the short term
I suspect you wouldn't), I think you'd probably just wind up with
rather unhealthy grass, or perhaps grass which sent up rather more
flowering stalks than usual.

--
Mike.