I think you could drive yourself nuts with a different fertilizer formulation and schedule for every different thing. If your plants have survived your years of gardening, whatever you're doing now must not be causing any harm.

I don't do any of it - save for Miracle-Gro maybe twice a season on some annuals. And all the garden beds get a topdress of compost once a year. Shrubs, once established really don't need a feeding regimen - or simply follow the recommendations on the bag of Holly Tone if it's appropriate for the shrubs you have.

Ditto, feed the soil, not the plants. Maybe give acid loving shrubs a little holly tone in early spring. Otherwise, don't fertilize plants.

I see a huge difference when I use Miracle grow. I like to give them all a shot right before they bloom and then the bloom is spectacular. I also give it again several times over the season. They also get osmocote and fresh mulch -which eventually breaks down. If something were not performing beautifully I would not do this but the plants are huge and bloom great.

Thanks for the info. When you add compost do you pull the mulch back? Or do you not mulch or only do a thin layer, turning it all into the soil?

I mulch with small pine bark...it decays in a season. I also use very generous helpings of alfalfa pellets every spring and again in mid summer.
In this coundry we so sooo soooo over use chemical fertilizers that we are ruining our lakes and rivers.
And for those of you who say you notice a big difference whan you feed with Mirical gro...I say try blood meal and alfalfa and bone meal.....but for potted plants....they need a boost to that confined space.

Here is a link that might be useful: Alfalfa tea

I don't fertilize.

i never bother fertilizing trees.. conifers.. nor shrubs.. waste of money IMHO ....

annuals.. since they have so much to accomplish in one year.. can get a little of this or that.. i would tend toward a generic cubed fert.. 12-12-12.. or 16 or 19 .. though 19 is getting pretty high .... amount varies on formula ...

perennials.. i would tend to be very careful .. they need to harden off for winter.. so one dose of something in mid summer would be about it ....

all that said.. a good mulch.. or a layer of compost.. feeds the soil.. and negates the necessity to add anything else ...

they are plants... NOT YOUR BABIES... they have been around for millions of years... without any help from us.... they really dont NEED TO BE FEED like children ...

but if it pleases you.. just go easy.. and cheap ...

ken

I use the best compost available from a local nursery because I believe it is the backbone of the garden. I put 2 inches of compost on all the gardens, sometimes sprinkle a light helping of 5-10-5 fertilizer. That's it, and my plants are healthy and beautiful. I agree, we fertilize too much! I would never use Miracle Gro on my perennials, but I do use that kind of product on my annuals in windowboxes and containers.

The only thing I fertilize are my clematis (once, in the spring) and the petunias in my hanging baskets.

Beyond those two, my plants pull their nutrients from the soil, which I enrich with compost each spring. I also work the previous year's mulch into the soil, which helps feed it.

This is my current plan...I am going to add 2" of compost to the 80'+ bed that is being partially planted this year (loam was spread last fall) and am going to spread some 10-10-10 fertilizer on the beds that were planted last year. My rhods look awful (lots of winter kill on them) so I may give them some Holly Tone.

Thanks everyone.