Magic brews - NO, not for the gardener, but for the plants!

If your beds are not quite the magnificently rich and fertile soil you wanted - like for most of us - a short-term remedy is a liquid feed.   Use any substance rich in nutrients for your plants - simply soak it.   The nutrients leach into the water, and you have a "garden tea" easily absorbed by your veg.

Basic Method for "Tea"

• Cover material in water, and soak; most recipes "suggest" that you put a lid on the container - this is essential; also do not put the bin by your back door.   It will stink.
• After a couple of days you will have a weak but useful brew, usable undiluted.
• After 2-4 weeks you'll have a stronger brew; this will require a lid and is not suitable for people with short arms!
• Stir every couple of days to avoid the brew going stagnant.
• Dilute to the colour of weak tea and water in as a plant food, every couple of weeks.
• Or use as a spray on plant leaves (a foliar feed).
  • This process produces a concentrated plant food, and your brew will need to be diluted for use - 1 part tea to 10 parts water for watering in your feed; 1 part tea to 20 parts water to spray on leaves.
• Dump the material waste in the compost heap!

Remember - this is only a short-term remedy for plants which need "a bit of a lift"; it won't solve any problems with your soil, as it will be washed away pretty quickly.

Specific Recipes for "tea" brews

• Animal Manure
  • Fill a small sack or cloth bag and suspend this in a container full of water;
  • rich in nitrogen (especially poultry or pigeon manure) - good for brassicas, onions
• Compost
  • fill a bag or sack, as for animal manure
• Seaweed
  • rinse the seaweed first to get rid of salt
  • rich in potash (good for potatoes, tomatoes)
• Comfrey
  • cut back the comfrey plants to about 2 inches three or four times a year
  • pack a dustbin with the cut leaves, and cover with water
  • rich in potash (good for potatoes, tomatoes), and minerals; good source of nitrogen (for just about anything!)
• Nettles
  • you can make a couple of "harvests" a year from your nettle patch
  • pack a dustbin with the cut leaves, and cover with water
  • said to prevent disease, as well as promoting health plant growth
  • rich in potash (good for potatoes, tomatoes), and minerals; good source of nitrogen (for just about anything!)
• Odd recipes
  • any combinations of the above!
  • basically anything nitrogen rich, such as fresh grass cuttings
  • the original cold tea from the teapot! Tea leaves are high in potash

The strong stuff
- Heath Robinson's Potions

These methods produce a much stronger concentrate, which should be diluted at

• 1 part potion to 10 or 20 parts water for watering in,
• 1 part potion to 40 parts water as a spray-on leaf feed.

They also have a couple of advantages, in that they smell less, and the concentrate can be stored (in dark glass bottles, in a cool, dark place.

• Using a bucket
  • Use a plastic container with a hole in the bottom, and fill it with comfrey/nettle leaves. Put a weight on top of the leaves and leave.
  • After about three weeks a black, very smelly, liquid will drip from the hole.
  • Collect this in a bottle (shelter the hole and bottle from the rain!).
  • The concentrate can be stored in the dark for several months.
• Using a wormery
  • The above method is popular among those people who have paid out £50 for a plastic wormery, got fed up with the work involved - and discovered it's perfectly designed for making comfrey concentrate!
• Using a piece of drain-pipe!
  • Fix a drainpipe with wire and brackets to garage wall;
  • Wedge a 6-pint milk bottle and funnel underneath the drainpipe;
  • Stuff the drainpipe with comfrey or nettle leaves;
  • Put a plastic pop-bottle full of water in the top of the drainpipe (attached to a length of string); this will compress the leaves down the drainpipe;
  • and the concentrate will drip into the bottle, while the funnel keeps the leaves back.