Hey! My garden has never seen anything but organic matter on it since we bought this place eight years ago. We use well rotted horse and donkey manure from our critters, compost including mushroom compost from a certified organic mushroom producer, bone meal when planting new trees or shrubs, seaweed meal and liquid kelp in the container plantings; that's it. And that's once in the spring. Stuff does fantastically well in part because the soil is clay and nutrient-rich, holds moisture when it's dry, and the fog also waters plants. I only water container plantings and they're in large pots, grouped together to minimize watering. We do the best we can, and we have a lot of shrubs and trees, some native, some not. No Scotts crap (or other chemical mix) has ever landed in this yard, nor ever will.

But I disagree a bit with what you said about garden bloggers bloom day. Many of us simply take photos of individual flowers, rather than banks of them, because a single flower is even more beautiful than a whole shrub or clump or bouquet of them. I take photos and post them to celebrate the marvels of plants, not to compete with others. And I'd rather see people growing flowers, trees and shrubs than obsessing over lawn...or or paving everything in sight. It just takes time to gently educate others. I've been growing things organically since Ag. College in the 70s, where I was looked at as anathema (if not antichrist-like) for suggesting we could grow foods without dumping seventeen different chemicals on them. Some people get it. Others don't or won't. In that way, overfertilizing or pesticide use is rather like smoking--people know it's expensive, deadly (not to mention stinky and stupid-looking) but they do it anyway.

Idealistically, I agree with you Jodi. However, ideals are rarely played out in the reality of life.

While the notion of Garden Blogger's Bloom Day is fantastic and we should encourage people to (a) be proud of their gardens, and (b) be inspired to grow more in their gardens, I sense that their is some competition creeping in already.

And whenever competition abounds, people will invariably steer towards one-upmanship. Human nature always likes to be recognised and honoured. Therefore, I see that gardeners will strive for better and juicier flowers for which nature rarely creates.

And to achieve this, nature needs to be massaged beyond its own universal laws.

Stuart, why do you assume the flowers for blooms day were produced with phosphates? I'd want more feedback from participants before making such a blanket statement. Garden bloggers write a lot about compost and rain gardens, which filter water before it gets into streams and watersheds.

Maybe you have some Freudian fear-of-flowers guy-type-thing going on ;-]

Jodi would feel at home in Austin - my garden friends like Pam/Digging and the Divas of the Dirt use compost and plant lots of native flowers which don't want heavy fertilization.
Instead of commercial plant food my own choice is organic foliar feed, which is absorbed directly by the leaves of the plants rather than added to the soil.

I looked at some of your links and found some more articles via Google. It appears that another way phosphates get into streams is via stormwater runoff where dog feces were not scooped up by pet owners. There's a lot of phosphate in those lawn piles!
A major problem is manure ponds on hog farms. Scientists are trying to breed hogs with lower phosphates levels in their excrement, but that's far in the future.

Instead of telling us to give up Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day, maybe you should tell people to quit eating bacon!

Annie at the Transplantable Rose

Annie - firstly I'm not making the assumption that flowers shown for Garden Blogger's Bloom Day were produced with phosphates nor am I discouraging people from participating in this project - as I, myself, have participated in the past and will continue to do so in the future.

However, while I agree with the sentiments regarding growing natives, storing rainfall and making compost I'm being the doomsday-prophet rather than the "Freudian fear-of-flowers guy-type-thing".

My 'beef' is not with Carol's GBBD but how I see it being played out. Already many of the flowers that are being displayed are far from being indigenous to the owner's region and there seems to be an ever growing trend towards growing the next best thing in flowering plants.

This thinking comes at a price which I have already outlined above.

My suggestion about GBBD was that bloggers explain the processes with which they nurtured these flowers to their blooming best.

Let's shun the evil chemical practices and applaud those who work with nature's rules.

i've recently gone back to college - this time NOT for business and took an environmental geography course on a lark...what an eye opener. i can't completely convert my family and household and sell my pickup immediately but i'm making as many changes as i possibly can including a new compost bin, replacing the big pickup by year end, and eliminating bottled water from my family's shopping list. i'm happy to find gardening groups feeling similarly. cheers to ya for writing it out loud.

My mantra for the garden : Organic No Panic.
Spend time using additional fertilizers to encourage blooms ?
No way.
I've got way too many other gardening chores that need to be done.
Besides, I focus on foliage, flowers are but a nice bonus.
Additionally, I grow a lot of plants in the Protea family which are phosphorus intolerant.
Wanna see a banksia , a Leucospermum or a leucadendron die a sudden death ? .. just a whiff of phosphorus will do it in.
It's survival of the fittest here in my garden, if a plant doesn't like the fairly lean soil conditions, then its off to the compost pile.

Stuart:

That is quite an assumption that a competition is going on concerning Bloom Day posts. I certainly don't see gardening as a competitive sport but more of a shared experience. As far as using chemical fertilizers last I heard they were not illegal and used responsibly there will be little leaching of nutrients. I use primarily organic based fertilizers and compost and am more than a bit miffed that I have to justify my gardening practices. Use your powers for good Stuart, and not for divisive reasons. To say that chemical fertilizers are evil is quite an interesting statement. Maybe the only competition you are sensing is coming from you! As for planting only natives, here in the US we would be without the apple tree and the lilac bushes to name just two if our forebears had not brought them with them.

Preach it, sister.

The previous comment was directed at Michelle FTR.

Layanee - ouch! Our forebears bought the Arum Lily and cute cuddly rabbits. Both now wreak havoc on our ecosystems and threaten native species on a daily basis.

I'm not saying that fertilisers are not useful but I know many gardeners who could not, and will not, give them up because their very exotic gardens will fail without them.

I'm not trying to be divisive, merely attempting to lift the bar a little in how our hobby affects our environment. If we're going to enjoy these chances to display our efforts then we should at least be prepared for some transparency in how we achieved them.

Powers????

I guess my beef is that you are blaming it on the flowers. I certainly do not disagree with your premise that the indiscriminate use of phosphate laden chemical fertilizers by the average home owner can cumulatively add up to and equal the nutrient runoff caused by agriculture. Maybe I have not looked at enough of the Bloom Day participants posts, but I have not noticed a competition among them.

I have noticed that many of the Bloom Day bloggers tend to celebrate the insects, birds, reptiles and other wildlife that inhabit their gardens. These are not people who come across as chemical junkies.

Flowers are not the only thing that people who toss out fertilizer as a quick fix are thinking they are helping. These same folks have lawns, shrubs, trees, and vegetable gardens that they feed too.

Your subject of the overuse of fertilizer and excess phosphate runoff caused by home owners and gardeners is a legitimate topic well worth discussing, but don't blame it on the flowers.

I suspect that many of the dissidents above know little about the fragile, nutrient-poor soils of WA. On the other hand, some of them are probably contributing to the 7000 square mile dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico, so there's really no excuse.

Gardens are by definition a human intervention in nature. Certainly the world would be better off if I weren't sprinkling a bit of bone meal on its surface, but that's pretty low on list of the ways I'm making the planet worse (eating seafood, say, or breeding or going to work).

And as long as we're talking about scale, although individual gardeners are of course prone to excess, their contribution to a generally shittier environment (barring introductions of invasive species) is DWARFED by agriculture's, which, unfortunately, is necessary to keep us alive (and wasting time and oxygen and heavy metals on the internets).

Of course you're right Christopher. Flowers are the soft target for the sake of discussion but still a plausible one.

Everyone seems to roll their eyes in agreement when we discuss lawns as if they're already doing enough. Yet growing flowers can be just as responsible for the leaching of these chemical wastes.

I'll admit it's a shock value post, but that's only because gardeners are still buying and using these products.

Sorry, but considering how few people actually garden (in the U.S. the surveys seem to indicate it's something like 7 or 8% of the population) and that more and more of those who do are going organic, it's laughable to think that gardeners are really a major factor in the fertilizer runoff problem.

And suppose we did produce less flowers. How would that impact the bee and other pollinator populations (both native and non-native) that are already in crisis? They need blooms, not pretty foliage.

We need to stop looking for simplistic answers to complex environmental problems.

7-8% of the US population = more than 19 million gardeners . That's a lot of phosphates in anybody's language.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, it's not about not growing flowers but growing them organically and indigenously.

I think the biggest problem is fobbing off the easy steps to a solution. One small step at a time is all that's required...

Well Stuart, I think you are making wrong assumptions here. Those of us that participate in GTS & GBBD for the most part seem to be big fans of compost and other natural fertilizers. I live in the country so anything I put on my garden runs off into my own well. My garden by design attracts wildlife. If you don't think I should grow flowers what would you have me grow? When I take pictures for GBBD of course I take pictures of my prettiest blooms. It has been through GBBD that I have "met" many gardeners that have given me valuable tips and encouragement. I don't think you need worry so much about those of us that tend our own spaces but rather those that hire landscape and lawn care companies. Those are the folks worried about keeping up with the Jones'.

You keep saying "we," as though we're all complicit in this phosphorous conspiracy. I don't know about WE, but when it comes to ME, my flowers get good organic stuff. If they can't thrive on that, they don't belong in my garden.

If I don't grow flowers, I don't get bees and other beneficial insects. With all the problems bees are having these days, it's kind to plant flowers for them, and practical as well. Bee flowers draw bees to the garden and assure good pollination of my veggies and fruits. Other flowers draw other types of beneficial bugs. Flowers, berry bushes, fruit trees, and veggies all mingle and thrive in my garden.

At the risk of sounding like an old hippie -- FLOWER POWER!

ReadingDirt - I applaud you.

"If they can't thrive on that, they don't belong in my garden." - Correct answer.