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coriannh0uzzviolatedmyprivacy

Growing alfalfa to use on your roses - anyone else doing this?

Cori Ann - H0uzz violated my privacy
7 years ago
last modified: 7 years ago

When some amazing rose pros on this forum told me to try alfalfa on my roses... I hustled out and bought some alfalfa feed pellets and quickly added them to the soil around the roses.

My dogs love alfalfa feed. Little did I know.

So they scratched and dug and ate it all up, totally disturbing the roots. Except in the areas where they couldn't reach. In those areas, I was amazed that alfalfa made such a quick difference! It didn't seem real!

Well, I'm a simple ranch girl at heart so I thought... I have room, I will just grow my own alfalfa. Thinking the dogs wouldn't eat it if it was fresh. (We will see about that. My dogs are weird and they may eat it anyways). I sprinkled seeds all along the fence line, in areas between other plants, and in borders.

We used bales of alfalfa hay all over the ranch when I was younger, but I had no idea how beneficial it was and how it actually worked. Thank you to those on this forum for educating me!

Now, I have bunches and bunches of little alfalfa seeds sprouting up all over the place. It smells like a salad bar in my yard right now.

I plan to harvest it, chop it, put it in with the rose soil and mulch. I will add it to the veggies, citrus and berries too. Any extra I will add to the compost pile.

It likes to grow in cooler weather, is winter hardy and takes only 60ish days to maturity. Super easy to germinate. The birds didn't seem to bother with it either.

It's not a bad looking plant. Green with little purple flowers. It didn't take any care on my part to get started. Just threw some seeds out, covered them very slightly, and let the rain water them.

Anyone else doing this? Or am I the only farm girl growing crops of alfalfa for her roses? :)

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