Everything has a chemical make up so yes. Is it organic? No. I think your plan sounds good. A soil test will probably be helpful.

If you do use a 'chemical' fert then try the slow release kind. It doesn't wash out right away and seems not to bother the worm population as does a shot of blue kool-aid. Going strictly organic is a rather time consuming method that will indeed improve the soil immensely. Great soil = great plants.

Miracle Grow is a synthetic fertilizer and any nutrients it may contain are derived from synthetic sources. If you are trying to be an organic gardener it is not something you would want to use.

Miracle Gro does market a 100% organic fertilizer under the same name (or just slightly different - Miracle Gro Organic Choice). If your friend is using this, she is correct in that it is not sythetically derived. However, your plan to amend with sheep manure and kelp sounds like a good one to me. Tree roots can cause quite an impact on veggie growing - they are probably the primary culprit for less than stellar results in the past.

g'day sheryl,

for me if it is man made then it is not organic/original/natural. and things that are called organic under the reglations might be derived from a less than organic source.

we garden in such a way as to never have to bother about using anything that is produced. we feed our garden medium/soil continually all our composting and worm farming happens at the coal face that is right in the garden where it is needed.

all food scraps get tucked under the mulch, we use green type mulches ie.,. spoilt hay or sugar cane mulch, they all break down continually and provide nutrients, if we can we even source slashed grass from fields or open parkland areas. we don't have many pruning but they generally get cut up a little more and mulched around the tree they came from.

as our plants aren't overdosed with nitrogen we have few bugs issues, my wee water and most of our grey water includng dish washing water goes to the garden beds.

too easy.

len

Here is a link that might be useful: len's garden page