How Do You Win A Garden Growing Contest? Location, Soil, Feeding and Watering. October 2025

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How do you win a growing contest?  Here's an Instagram Reel from Yuliya from ydoyougarden talking about how she won an Elephant Ear growing contest:

What's her recipe?  

1. Location. 5 hours of sunlight.
2. Added manure. Once per month.
3. Fed with liquid fertilizer every two week.
4. Used humic acid booster. To increase uptake.
5. A ton of water. 20 minutes 'slow drip'.

Adding a bag of manure *every month* is wild (to me).  Food for thought as I think about dahlias next year.  And, thinking about the difference between the two Wizard of Oz dahlias, maybe a 'fall task' for the coming months.  

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