Caption: Unloved pot bound azalea
Caption: Azalea pruned and repotted with Ericaceous Wool Compost
Caption: Azalea in flower after pruning and repotting.
Making the best use of the ingredients nature gives us from around our Cumbrian farm is integral to how we run our business at Dalefoot.
Our peat free composts are rich with the wool from our flock and those of our neighbours, and the bracken harvested from the local fells. We tweak our different compost recipes so they suit the plants they will nurture and nourish.
Our Wool Compost for Seeds has a finer texture with good drainage to provide the best start for seeds; our Wool Compost Double Strength contains a high concentration of naturally derived nutrients, if you like our equivalent of ‘compost max’, so it can be mixed with soil or spent compost. And so on…
Acid-loving plants, such as blueberries, heathers and azaleas, need a compost with a lower pH. We therefore harvest bracken for our Wool Compost Ericaceous from the more acidic areas of the fells. And it works a treat.
One of our Dalefoot team owned a pot-bound, unloved azalea desperately needing some TLC. Over the years, it had become straggly and faded. By pruning it back hard after flowering, and replacing most of the old compost with our Wool Compost Ericaceous, the plant is now thriving once again. Isn’t nature clever.