Planted lots of soft fruits and veggies - what do i feed them?

[SarahL2]

I have a very small garden but have managed to fit in - between the flowers - tomatoes and peppers in troughs, strawberries in hanging baskets, blueberries and raspberries in tall pots and herbs (basil, thyme and chives) in smaller pots. Have planted all in growbag compost.

I've got some Tomato food that says it is also OK for Peppers, but what, if anything, do I feed the soft fruits and the herbs?

Is it OK to give them tomato food too??

Oh, and I always kill Thyme. Any tips on keeping it growing would be very much appreciated...

[Kathyis6incheshigh]

Tomatoes and leafy things need different food - if you feed tomatoes ordinary plant food they put all their energy into leaves not fruit so I assume the opposite would happen if you fed leafy things with tomato food!

I would never bother feeding herbs, just repot them in fresh compost every year.
Not sure about the soft fruit, maybe just manure in the autumn.

[SarahL2]

Thanks Kathy.

Tomoato Food definitely says it's good for the Peppers too so I guess I'll just be feeding those.

It's all very exciting

[Kathyis6incheshigh]

I am v excited about my soft fruit this year - I put it in in the autumn (gooseberries, rasps, blackcurrants and redcurrants) and they're all looking very healthy.
The important thing will be to net them before the birds get to them.

How do you kill thyme btw? I've never had trouble with thyme though I had some lemon thyme which got a fungus - from over-watering I suspect.

[WynkenBlynkenandNod]

Blueberries need feeding at the end of the month with a feed for ericaceous plants, Miracle Gro do one and I'm sure there are other makes. Apparently they also prefer to be kept well watered with rain water rather than tap water. I think you probably need to get them out of the growbag compost and get a bag of ericaceous compost to put them in.

There is plant food you can get for soft fruit, DH is in charge of that but I think our strawberries survived last year on neglect so probably not the right person to comment on that !

Thyme likes well drained soil and doesn't need very much water, plus does like a fair bit of sun, so I wonder if you are over watering it ? Mine lives very comfortably in a trough by the front door that I very rarely water, it looks pretty healthy.

Basil is quite tender I think so you need to be careful the night time temperature doesn't dip or it could kill it off.

[SarahL2]

Thanks everyone .

Was simplifying slightly when I posted. Everything but the blueberries are in Growbag compost, which are in normal compost and we're planted up last year.

They're currently looking really good and have loads of flowers on. So I'm hoping this translates into loads of fruit. Will give the Ericaceous food a go though - thanks for the tip!

Thyme just seems to dry up and die. I end up left with woody, then skeletal plants which just fade away. It's currently in a shallow, wide pot in the sunniest spot in the garden. Pervious plants have gone into the soil in a similar spot. Maybe the clay soil retianing the water is whats killing them?

Our garden is pretty bird free thanks to being surrounded by gardens with cats (I knew there had to be a silver lining on that cloud! ) but will look out for some netting to be on the safe side.

Will bring the Basil in if it looks like it's going to be cold.