The skunks and raccoons might be a problem but I heard years ago that fish heads were absolutely great for roses. I don't know whether anyone here has tried it but would love to know whether it works.

Ingrid

DH likes to fish. I've been burying stuff like this all summer (that's a 5 gallon bucket). Goes in about a foot deep-we have 2 cats and 2 dogs and nothing has been dug up yet. I buried them just outside of the dripline to avoid disturbing the roots-the fun should start in another few months!

{{gwi:298571}}

I can't believe your dogs don't dig that up - the smell would be intoxicating for them!! LOL

I bet that would really work well.

Carol

Haven't tried on roses but my ex husband was an avid fisherman. I saved the heads from his ice fishing catch over the winter in a freezer bag in the freezer. Come spring, one or two heads in each tomato plant hole. I had tomatoes like you would not believe.

Remember from grammar school how the Indians taught the Pilgrims to put a fish in with each corn seed.

My family are avid fisherpeople. We have a home in Canada and generate LOTS of fish scraps and have ALWAYS buried them around the plants, and the results are amazing. We have dogs that never dug them up. Nor, have they attracted bears. I wish that I had a steady supply of fish scraps.

Robert

I only have 4 puny fishheads, but it will be fun to see what happens. I'll bury them deep and outside the dripline.

Next year, if I can figure out a good supply for them, I'm going to bury them under the tomatoes.

Maui, that's some picture! Catsrose, that story is prob why I thought of it. Robert, I wish I had a steady supply too. Ingrid, I'll let you know what happens. I want to know what happens with Maui's roses!

Thanks, all. Gean

My DH is also avid fisherman and when he does bring a fish head home, he gives it to our Vietnamese neighbor who makes a fiery hot fish head soup! To each his own.
I will ask him to get some off the boat next time he goes out.

I never knew you did anything else with fish heads and guts but burying them in the garden. I grew up thinking you were supposed to do that.

I want to know what happens with Maui's roses!

Me too Gean ;)

Just put in a square foot garden-he gave me some small leftover bait fish to bury in each grid-how could you not love a man like that!

Alas, Patricia, I lived a gardening deprived life. My mom grew houseplants and not much else. But you are one of those wonderfully blessed people whose families knew what to do with fish guts and gardens. I probably read it in a book somewhere; wouldn't have thought of it otherwise. Gean

Mind if I jump in here and thank you for reminding me? My dad's hobby was fishing - deep sea mostly, freshwater when he got the chance - and, yes, the fish cleanings went into the compost pile, buried under the vegetable and lawn debris; deceased pet hamsters and snakes, and the inevitable dead birds we children found wound up there too [although these all received a more ceremonious burial than the fish scraps].

How could I forget?

We're close to the ocean, no more than 10 minutes from a marina for private, party and a few small commercial boats, so fish scraps should be easy to get, once I get over my shyness about going to the docks to ask for them, lol. My roses could use the boost.

Does anyone know just what it is in the fish scraps that is so beneficial to plants?

Diane

Actually, just today I went and bought some organic fish meal and it is a 9-4-1 fertilizer. Pretty good I think.

I caught a couple good size fish and planted around a couple tea roses, no results yet. But when I was a kid my dad had a row of Lombardy poplar trees and planted fish around two on the end. He had always heard that the Indians did that and wanted to see if it did anything. It took a long time but those trees years later and years after that were always a liitle taller and much greener than the others.
I would think the fish probably have a little of everything nutritionally, right down to all the micro-ingredients, balanced so to speak.

It would be fun to know what various cultures worldwide have done to fertilize their crops. Over on the rose forum someone planted a dead cat in their rose beds with wonderful results -

in the cultures that adjoin sea or lake areas, fish and seaweed no doubt. What else, does anyone know?

Egg shells, used tea leaves

I know that the Japanese use night soil. That's been used here in the US also, I think - that's what milorganite is, isn't it? refined sewage sludge

Gean, you might drawn in some critters with a fish head, but chances are it will be fine. It depends on how prone you are to having those nearby as it is. Yes, Milorganite is sewage sludge.

Anything organic! Just not too much green and not too much brown, try to have a good mix to make compost.

I wish I had the money for all the fish refuse we have buried in our gardens when I was growing up. My gardener told me recently that his mother had been fishing and would a lot of fish "enterals" for him to put in his garden. He grows veggies and flowers.

For some reason, I can haul and sling manure all day and it doesn't bother me but that bucket of fish pieces/parts kind of turns my stomach......:-) I could probably bury a fish head if the eyes weren't starring at me. LOL.

Carol

What about burying a chicken? from the grocery store, no feathers. Would that have the same effect as a fish head?

I am not trying to be gross, I just wonder. Does anyone know?

Carol, fish eyes don't really bother me but I do have a hard time going near a dead bird or other small animal in the yard that I find from time to time. Although I guess I should start burying them in the rose beds.

Thanks for all the stories about fish and your families; it was fun to read. Patricia, you must have one fine gardener!

Gean

Over on the rose forum someone planted a dead cat in their rose beds with wonderful results -
* * *
sounds like voodoo to me. haha.

I once buried fish parts from a recent trip between two tomato plants. A week and a half later I went to put in an oregano I had just bought. Where do I dig but right where I buried the fish. The stench chased me into the house.
ALWAYS remember your bodies are buried.

I meant to say "always remember WHERE your bodies are buried."

May be a dumb question, but I found some cat poo in basement that I thought I had under control. Do I dare bury that, preferably a little shallow 'cuz tired of digging so much? Wouldn't use it in my crude composting method.

Wouldn't work for other bodies, but could fish and meat scraps (and the poo) be mixed into some bad soil (much clay) I was going to get rid of, cover and store for awhile separately until it breaks down more?

cats are meat eaters so their poo would not work. Regular meat would attract wild or even rabid animals and would not be doing the soil any favors. Dairy and meat scraps can harbor pathogen growth in the soil.

Check out the link. Fourth paragraph down.

Here is a link that might be useful: meat scraps etc in soil

My grandfather fished every morning in the summer and crabbed in the afternoons when the tide came in. The heads and other parts always went into the tomato garden. We had great tomatoes. I would help him clean the fish we caught. Nothing was wasted. Even the clam shells were tossed onto our gravel road.

Grandma tossed her dishwater on the hydrangea and rose bushes after meals. Those plants were ginormous.

Now I spend $22/gallon for fish emulsion. I am grown now and no longer live on an island in the sea, so I guess this makes do.

I bought a pellet gun and shoot rabbits. I toss at least one a week into the compost pile and turn it over. This is some sort of payback, returning a small portion of what they took from me when they were alive. I may stop doing this because decomposing animals really stink.

i think i have read that Gertrude Jekyll liked to prepare her planting holes by placing a dead rabbit in the bottom. OTOH i hear rabbits make a tasty stew.

Here is a link that might be useful: Tasty Rabbit Stew