It all sounds a bit like 'ear of toad and eye of newt ' or whatever to me so perhaps that's why I never tried it. I'm willing to be persuaded as most gardens on here seem healthier than mine:-)

1) Blood, Fish and Bone (BFB) is organic so is better for the environment and any food crops that you might be eating.
2) BFB is a slow release fertiliser that gives a continous, light feed to the plants over a long period of time. Chemical fertilisers give quick bursts of food then nothing until the next feed.
3) BFB is a dry powder and so can be used with bulk mixes of homemade potting composts.
4) BFB is probably cheaper than chemical fertilisers but, as I don't buy the latter I am not sure.

Thanks Bh, can you mix it in with your compost in the bin or do you have to wait 'til your bin is full? I have recently emptied away my full compost bin as my husband put celandine bulblets in it 8~/ (cause for divorce?) so it's just getting started again. I also wonder would my dogs find it appetising and start eating it? I'm having a makeover and want to get off on the right foot:-)

No, Bornagain, I did not mean the garden compost bin, this should have enough nutriment in it as it is. I was talking about home made John Innes type composts in my previous response.

Henry is always interested when I sprinkle it around my plants in the early spring, Ba. So I hoe it in, and then he leaves it alone. Hope that helps. I use it a lot - roses, clematis, any 'hungry' plants, really.

I grow a lot of veg (as you all know) and find BFB is the only fertilizer I need except for my tom's. they get Tomorite feed once the flowers have started showing.

I put it around plants in the spring and mix it with the soil when planting bare rooted plants (but not directly on the roots).

BFB covers just about every thing,bone meal is slow relise and is good for fruit trees and bushes,fish is next to guaner as the sea birds eat fish to make it ,and blood is faster reliseing and good for just about every thing,the only thing it dose not have is humas and your farm yard manure surplys this,

Thanks everyone for your help, I will give it a try this year, being careful to hoe it in! For ornamental plantings is this all I will need ? Bh how do you make John Innes type compost? Does it need sterilising?

I don't try tyo sterilise my compost, Ba. I have heard of people putting it in the oven or microwave but a) I am not allowed to and b) doing so will kill off all the beneficial organisms as well as any nasties and weed seeds.Because of weed seeds I don't use it as seed compost but for all other potting when I pull the weed seedlings out as they appear (actually there are surprisingly few and it is not a big job).
As to how I make it, can I refer you top my blog 'Potting Compost Mixes' on November 30th 2009 which describes it in detail.

One final point I feel you would benefit from Ba, and it's the smell. I find it quite acceptable but I have to warn certain others of my intentions to use it which usually clears the garden quicker than when I brought two tonnes of mushroom compost in and started digging it in!

It does take a bit of getting used to, I agree.

I must tell you - a couple of years ago - I bought a new box of it, and I was opening it in the greenhouse. Nosey Henry came to see what I was up to - and backed out barking furiously! He wouldn't come back in! Isn't that odd? He's OK with it now - to the extent that he's rather TOO interested.

Aaah no-one mentioned this Ian. Years ago my husband put the smelliest slimiest imaginable stuff from his 'compost bin' on our back garden which he swore was alright. No-one could go in the garden for the smell for days and we were invaded by queer, I think orange flies. Must be dung flies or something like, Ugh. I can't believe it will be that bad :-) I'm going to look at your blog now Ba:-)

It isn't! Honestly!

It's not that bad, honestly Ba. It has a distinctive smell more than a bad one!

Distinctive I can live with;-)

It's well worth it!

Ok ok you win I'm going to use it and look for great improvements in my plants:-))