With the arrival of summer weather in most areas of the county comes the chance for many to spend more time in the great outdoors. While some may spend their time lounging by the pool, or at the beach, others take this time to improve their homes curb appeal by improving the landscaping that surrounds their home.  While some may have been blessed with the “green thumb” that allows them to make their plants flourish regardless of its location, the rest of us need a little help in the form of one of the many fertilizer products currently available on the market.

A new product available on the market is the Miracle-Gro LiquaFeed. More commonly known for their original boxed plant food that required measuring and mixing, Miracle-Gro has taken the guesswork out of fertilizing your plants with a pre-mixed fertilizer kit that quickly and easily attaches to your hose.

On our last trip to Target this past weekend, I decided to give the Miracle-Gro LiquaFeed Starter Kit a try since the countless commercials I had seen marketed this product as easy to use. After adding six new plants to our property over the Memorial Day weekend, I decided that it would be a good time to give this product a try. After opening the package, and a quick scan of the instructions lead me to believe that this product was simple enough for anyone to use.

I attached the nozzle to the hose, inserted the bottle and turned the nozzle to feed as the instructions directed me to. After about 10 minutes I realized that the bottle was not emptying. I looked at the instructions on the bottle and even went back to the info on the package and neither provided me with any form of troubleshooting advice regarding what to do if the product failed to function as designed.

Since I had become quite frustrated figuring that maybe the bottle wasn’t seated correctly, or not in the feeder tightly enough, I turned the feeder over to my husband to see if he could maybe get the Miracle-Gro LiquaFeeder to work.  After about 20 minutes and with the help of a pair of small pliers, the LiquaFeeder still did not work. My husband surmised that the plunger inside the feeder was not making contact with the release within the bottle.

While there is a good chance that we may have purchased a defective unit, I honestly cannot recommend the Miracle-Gro LiquaFeed Starter Kit at this time. My husband and I are both quite savvy when it comes to fixing malfunctioning devices but this product had us both at a loss of how to fix it. The unit has been placed back in its packaging and will be exchanged for a new one on our next trip to Target. I will post an updated review once I have a chance to try the replacement. Hopefully the new one will perform as described.

© 2011, Jennifer Bedell. All rights reserved.