July 11th: with the UV at 11 today, on the 11th, it’s a Nigel Tufnel Day.

In case you don’t get the reference, this will explain: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7IZZXQ89Oc


I don’t have any additional clever witticisms tonight. Here’s some pictures instead.

Miracle Gro rose. 

Better World rose.

Better World rose.

Peas. 

 Miracle Gro tomatoes. Starting to come in, but with scars and deformed shapes.

 Miracle Gro tomatoes. 

 Miracle Gro tomatoes. 

 Miracle Gro tomatoes. 

Better World marigolds. Still blooming. I have 2 left in the Miracle Gro bin. 

Better World tomatoes. Good looking, full healthy shape. 

Better World tomatoes. 

Better World tomatoes. 

Better World tomatoes. 

June 23rd: Yay! More rain!

Mamunia mamunia mamunia Oh oh oh 

Mamunia mamunia oh oh oh oh 

It might have been a bright blue day 

But rainclouds had to come this way 

They're watering everything that they can see. 

A seed is waiting in the earth 

For rain to come and set him free, 

So the next time you see L.A. rainclouds 

Don't complain, it rains for you. 

Two days in a row of continuous rain. As a cyclist, I’m none too happy with it. 

But as The Lazy Gardener, it’s great! Less work for me!

I’ve been away from my blogging post for a few days. The jungle of tomato and basil plants is doing fine without me. 

The MiracleGro box.

 The Better World Plant Food box.

 Marigolds on MiracleGro. Blooming later than the Better World box. 

Note also the ill-formed blossom. 

Marigolds on MiracleGro. Smaller than the Better World blooms, but this could be just because these are blooming later. 

Nicely formed bloom on Better World.

My bean pot booming on Better World.

See June 19th posting for comparisons. 

Figs are filling in nicely (on Better World).

Assorted veggies on water only. 

Still no strawberries.

Assorted on Miracle Gro. Strawberries finally ready to be picked. 

Assorted on Better World. Am starting to see my second crop of strawberries. 

Also, am harvesting the romaine lettuce. 

Here’s the MircleGro strawberries. Note the deformed, split skin and uneven shape. 

The split skin might be because the berries might have been ready for picking yesterday. 

I love fresh-picked strawberries. even these, grown with chemical MiracleGro, tasted better than the ones I'll buy in the market in winter. But these did not have the tart, tangy flavour of the berries grown with Better World (which I ate last week). 

If I needed further proof that Better World seems to speed up fruiting and growing, this is it: my first tomato is coming in!

On the MiracleGro plants, I have counted 19 blossoms today.  The Better World plants have 28 (!) blossoms, one or more that is already fruiting. Remember, these identical plants were all planted in the same conditions on May 26th. The only difference is the plant food. 

And of course, today’s measurements:

                      MiracleGro                                                                 Better World 

                          current height     recent gain /since May 25th       current height           recent gain/since May 25th 

• Raspberry           27.0 in                       +2.0/ +11.5                                   21.0 in                      +1.0/ +8.0

• Basil                     20.0                            +2.0/ +10.0                                    17.0                           +1.0/ +8.0

• Tomato               21.0                           +3.0/  +15.0                                  18.5                        +0.5/ +12.5

• Marigold          blooms  coming in now                                                      large, full blooms for the past week

What I’m gathering from this is, chemical MiracleGro seems to help plants grow taller faster. But for a fuller, faster fruiting  plant, the organic Better World is the way to go. 

June 16th: More growth, more pictures,more measurements, less blather.

 Hard to believe I only started this experiment 23 days ago. Just look at this jungle! 

All the plants are filling out nicely.  

One of my loyal followers, too lazy to cross-reference my detailed growth charts over 23 days, has suggested I indicate growth gains since the first planting, not just growth since the last measurement. I’ll confess, this makes some sense. Hence, this altered chart. (I might even just drop the recent gain measurement.)

                             MiracleGro                                                                 Better World 

                         current height     recent gain /since May 25th       current height           recent gain/since May 25th 

• Raspberry           23.0 in                       +1.5/ +7.5                                   19.0 in                      +2.0/ +6.0

• Basil                     16.0                            +1.0/ +6.0                                    14.5                           +1.5/ +4.5

• Tomato               16.0                           +1.5/  +10.0                                  15.0                        +1.0/ +9.0

• Marigold          2 blooms                                                                             8 blooms


If you’re looking for height gains, MiracleGro has a slight advantage. If you’re looking for flowering and fruiting, BetterWorld is superior. 


Exhibit A :

 Marigolds on Scotts MiracleGro

Marigolds on Better World Plant Food.

Exhibit B:

Tomatoes on MiracleGro. 

Note flowering, but limp stem. Two flowers visible (not in photo). 

Tomatoes on Better World .

Note flowering, stronger stem. Three flowers visible (not in photo).

Exhibit C:

 Peppers doing best on plain water.

 Lettuce happy on MiracleGro, but imparts a flavour I don’t care for.

Peppers happy on Better World. Beans very happy on Better World.

If it please the court, another example of beans on Better World.

Exhibit D:

Strawberries on MiracleGro are just starting to show colour. 

I’ve already eaten six berries from the Better World pots.

Exhibit E:

Fig tree on Better World is coming along nicely.

I rest my case. And my typing fingers.

June 2: Plants need food too? Who knew? I thought plants were food. I guess they’re not cannibals.

The first week results are in. 

                                   MiracleGro      gain                    Better World        gain 

• Raspberry                  16 in            +.5                        13.5 in                      +.5

• Basil                             10.5            +.5                          10.5                          +.5

• Tomato                         7.0           +1.0                            7.0                         +1.0

• Marigold                       3 blooms                             6 blooms

So far, everything seems equal, except the marigolds, which prefer Better World.  There is new growth on all the marigolds, so stay tuned. 

All plants seem to have hints of new growth. 

See May 27th posting for more feeding details. 

Both Better World and Miracle-Gro suggest weekly feedings.  Miracle-Gro says you can go 14 days between feedings. 

           According to Eric Rosenkrantz of Matchboxgarden.ca , he uses a lot less than the recommended amount of Better World, because he has a huge greenhouse. Quote:“I basically gave the soil a dusting of the product. Still got great results!”

          So I might try using Better World in lesser amounts than directed.  I think I’ve been adding more Better World than I actually need.   According to instructions “Better World Plant Food is highly concentrated; a little goes a long way.... over-application will not harm your plants.” So it doesn’t scare me the way Miracle-Gro does , which states “ can burn plants. ” 

Anyway, now that they’re all fed, I can go back to being Lazy! 

Till next week, anyway.

June 1: The plot thickens.

I’ve had several requests for a control plot, to properly compare plant feeding to not feeding at all. It’s been a week since started the Miracle-Gro versus Better World Plant Food in matching bins; so it seems only fair to the “dirt and water” contingent to start new beds from scratch.

Here they are:

Each bed contains, from left to right: 

strawberry, eggplant, jalapeno pepper (what was I thinking?!), 

and romaine lettuce. 

The two pots in the foreground contain radishes and green beans, which I’ll grow from seed. I’ve been told it’s too late to start growing from seed. We shall see. 

Or is that “We shall seed” ? 

Ibid with Miracle-Gro.

Ibid with Better World Plant Food. I managed to wedge a rosemary herb beside the lettuce. 

NOT part of this comparative study, but just to see if I can get it to bear fruit, I've set aside another plot bed: 

A fig tree. And some other assorted herbs and veggies. Consider this a stress test. How much can you reasonably jam into a container and still get results? 

Oh, and I’ve chosen to gamble the harvest from this lot on Better World.  

Why? Because I prefer the idea that organic supplements can actually grow food just as well petro-chemicals.  

(I also think the moon is made of cheese, but American dairy farmers won’t let  NASA harvest it.)

Here's what the farm looks like:

What are the odds?

I have bets going, 3-2 in favour of Miracle-Gro.
Anyone want to even the odds for Better World?  Anyone?
I have to remain neutral, of course.
But if you win, you get bragging rights, and maybe
a basket of tomatoes. 

May 30th: It’s been 4 days! Can we harvest yet?!

Jeez... this growing stuff takes forever. Pass the cheesepuffs please.

A couple of observations:  MIracleGro raspberry and basil looks equal to BetterWorld.  

Tomatoes look slightly happier on MiracleGro. 

Marigolds are not happy with MiracleGro at all, but doing nicely with BetterWorld. 

Marigolds are not happy with MiracleGro.

Marigolds are shiny happy people on Better World. 

When I first planted this stuff, I , being such a klutz, 

managed to damage the stalks of a couple of the marigolds on the BetterWorld side.  

I’m not sure if you can see it clearly, but the blossom on the left has a kink in the stem. 

This is one of the plants I damaged.  The bloom was clearly hanging south, with a 95º  bend to the stem. In 3 days, this flower has revived and ‘straightened’ to a 15º  bend.  

On Better World. 

All without expensive physio-therapy or chiropractic treatment. 

One other comment: I might have purchased the wrong basil. It’s kind of bitter-tasting, rather than the sweet stuff I prefer. I’m not sure if what I’m tasting is chemical fertilizer from the original hot-house grower (Freeman Herbs  http://www.freemanherbs.com/), or if this is just what Albahaca Columnar is supposed to taste like. Will keep you posted. 

A few people have asked me to include a control sample. 

In the next few days, I’ll do that with a fresh set of herbs and strawberries.  Spread the news! 

May 27th: The first feeding.

I mentioned I was lazy, right?

Feeding the garden is a requirement of this blog —nay, the sole purpose of this blog!— so I best get to it.  How hard can it be, right?

Okay, so let’s look at the competitors:

On the left, wearing the green and yellow trunks— MiracleGro! 

And on the right, in white trunks with fruits on them— Better World Plant Food!

Now, I have to confess to being a typical male. I avoid asking for directions, and rarely, if ever, read assembly instructions. Duct-tape works on everything.  But in the interest of science, I’ll glance at the usage directions for both. 

Hmmmm...... 

Okay, ummmm.... 

Miracle Gro: I’m using this outdoors on vegetables... but they’re in a container box, something like a houseplant. And too much will burn the plants.  No point in killing the experiment too early. Okay... I'll go with the milder blend.

It mixes up easily with water. The blue crystals remind me of the Copper Sulphate I used to play with as a kid. (Do parents still allow 7 yr olds to play with chemistry sets today, or would Child's Aid be called in?) Mixed with water, it’s a pretty tint of light blue, kinda like windshield washer fluid. And probably just as toxic. 

What I don’t do for my readers....

And now the Better World: 

Better World Plant Food gives me two options. I can just toss it on top of the soil and then water the plant normally. That appeals to The Lazy Gardener's Creed. (Rule One: do as little work as possible). But, since the Miracle Gro was mixed with water, I should  follow option two for Better World.  

Let’s see....Mix with water, wait 8 hours!? Wow! This stuff even caters to The Lazy Gardener's Creed, Rule Two: Whenever possible, procrastinate. 

Ten hours later.... 

The Better World Plant Food mixes up to a pale brown fluid, something like the Don River in August, but smells much better. Actually, it’s pretty much odourless. Trust me, with a schnoze my size, you notice odours.  

Not wanting to contaminate my watering can (which might skew results), I add both fluids directly from their individual mixing containers to their respective planters. 

No pictures. Use your imagination. It’s not like the plants suddenly started dancing or anything. But if they do, I’ll be sure to post the video here. 

I might as well add the starting measurements of the various plants here. 

Because size matters to Real Men:

                            MiracleGro Box           Better World Box

• Raspberry                  15.5 in                        13 in

• Basil                           10.0                           10.0

• Tomato                        6.0                             6.0

• Marigold                       5.0                             5.0

Please note, I couldn’t find two raspberry bushes of equal height. These are the starting measurements.