Feeding plants is different from amending the soil. Amending the soil is working into the soil organic amendments and minerals during bed and border preparation or at the time of planting. Feeding plants is traditionally accomplished by applying chemical fertilizers, usually the bagged, granular variety, and can also include chemical foliar sprays. For the organic gardener, amending the soil to enable microbes to feed plants is the preferred, low maintenance regimen. There are a few organic methods of directly feeding plants without harming plants or soil that will boost the landscape in time of need.

Compost happens, naturally, all over the earth. Organic matter decays rapidly in the humid tropics, more slowly in dry and cold regions. Decomposition of plant and animal matter is the Earth's natural and normal process of recycling old into new. Compost is the building block of life and energy. As gardeners, we may not look at compost in this grand view, but it is of elemental importance to the health and beauty of our home landscapes.
Throughout this website, I've referred to using compost often. Adding compost to tight, compacted clay soils, to loose, porous sandy soils, to humus-deficient caliche soils dramatically improves soil structure and increases organic content. Improving soil structure and organic content improves water and nutrient retention and increases the biological soil life. Adding compost to the soil is the single most important action gardeners can do to increase the health and beauty of their plants and landscape. In fact, compost is so important to our landscapes, it referred to as "black gold".

Of all the garden maintenance tasks, nothing can give as much pleasure as the fine tuning involved with grooming the landscape. Akin to periodic haircuts, pruning, shearing, dead heading and pinching all fall under the category of grooming the garden. Proper grooming leads to not only a neater garden, but a healthier, more beautiful and floriferous landscape. These techniques are easy to learn and perform. Seasoned gardeners perform these techniques effortlessly and routinely and their gardens reflect their mastery.