Rose fertilizer recipe

Image: Jupiter Images | 12 May 2008

In an issue of GardenWise magazine, you printed a recipe for rose fertilizer that included among other things, eggshells. Could you reprint the recipe, please?

Sheena Adams, Organic expert

It's time to feed roses! I am using this recipe this season and hope you will find good results with it too.

1 bag mushroom manure (28 litres)
1 cup lime
1 cup all-purpose organic plant food
1 cup worm casting
1 dozen crushed eggshells

Combine and add 5cm (2 in.) under the drip line of your rose. Water in. For extra protection against aphids, poke in two to three fresh garlic cloves at base of rose bush; the aphids detest the sulphur in the garlic.