What kind of fertilizer should i use , my soil is hard & dry my flowers don't do very well?

my flowers don't do so well, Just need to know the best fertilizer to use to help the soil....... i live in Pennsylvania..

What kind of fertilizer should i use , my soil is hard %26amp; dry my flowers don't do very well?
Peat moss (which is not a fertilizer) and dehydrated manure or compost. If possible, till this in deeply (4 to 6 inches).





Greensand is also useful, but it seems expensive.





Regular sand can sometimes help, but if you have clayey soil and simply add sand, you often wind up with a worse mixture that gets almost like concrete.





I would say of all of the above, based on your description of your situation, adding some peat moss will definitely help and is the first thing you should do. Peat moss is not a fertilizer, and plants will not grow in plain peat moss, but it does condition the soil, aerates it, and improves its water capacity.
Reply:No matter where you live or what type of soil you have, adding organic material to it w/ help the tilthe.


You can make compost (veggie matter = old clippings of anything but roses, weeds, leaves, etc. added to a nitorgen source... coffee grounds from your local ocffee house are great for this, you odn't need manure! Starbucks is a great place to get grounds, they have a corp sponsered program. My local store had trouble remembering to save them till offered to contact corpHQ to see if there were training materials that could be sent. ]:) )


Or you can jsut lay the material on the ground around the plant as mulch. (Mulch is NOT a fire hazard! It w/ actually put out a small fire! I have pix of a cigarette that went out on my mulch.) The eathworms will come up and take bites of the mulch back down into the soil. It takes time, but it works best.


If you use chems (fertilizer, herbaside or insectaside) you kill the microbes in your soil that keep it healthy %26amp; end up w/ hard packed soil that nothing can grow in. Using even just a little cides harms your soil %26amp; affects your plant health.
Reply:Decomposed (shredded) leaves are a great soil mix-in- cheap, too- check with your county, many counties give away the leaves they collect in the fall. It sounds like the problem is not so much lack of nutrients in the soil (that's when you need fertilizer) as compacted soil that's low in water-retaining, fluffy organic matter, which prevents the plants from being able to grow as easily as they want to...





If you can't get leaves, peat moss can be used, but peat moss is a dwindling resource- mined from peat bogs- and best used sparingly, particularly when there's a renewable resource available...
Reply:It does depend on where in PA you live, but I bet you have a lot of clay in your soil. My mum in law lives in Bedford county, and has that problem. You can use any kind of manure for fertilizer, but you should also seriously consider using peat moss to mix in with the soil, and as a mulch. It will break down and provide lift to your soil. In the spring before planting, you should lay down the peat moss and till it deeply into your soil, for best results.
Reply:you can try Lime to break up the soil and balance it.
Reply:You probably have a lot of clay in your soil. If you have clay soil, putting some gypsum on the soil should help. I recommend adding some organic matter to the soil such as compost or manure and that should also greatly help. You may also want to check the pH of your soil checked along with the make-up of your soil checked. Clay will hold a lot of nutrients, but I imagine you have little to no topsoil. The fertilizer mainly depends on what you plant. Most any flower fertilizer will work for your flowers, they just need fertilized to add the nutrients. My recommendations:





1. Add organic matter


2. Add gypsum if you have clay ground


3. Add flower fertilizer


4. Check the pH and add lime if necessary
Reply:take samples from various places in your yard and take them to your local extension service. they will test and advise best cute for soil. maybe a slight charge. 5 or 10 bucks. they will also come to your property and inspect your trees. good luck