I sprinkle fertilizer on the bed when I replant annuals twice a year, 10-10-10, osmocote, or whatever balanced fertilizer I found on the clearance shelves, usually not organic only because I haven't found a good organic that gives me equal results. I ask alot of the soil where annuals grow, so I feel they need it. Since I started doing this I get much bigger and more numerous blooms without a doubt. I use a light hand when sprinkling. For perennials and shrubs, I feed the soil, trying to add organic material to the bed at least once a year: composted manure (from bags), or compost, plus organic mulch that is constantly rotting in. Then I feed on an as-needed basis. For instance, my azaleas looked awful this spring. So I sprinkled a cup of Holly Tone around their root zones in early spring. MAde a world of difference. I usually give my roses the same treatment with Rose Tone, but not once a month like the package says! Once a year, plus good soil gives me great results. You really don't need a cheat sheet. Stick to organics as much as you can, care for your soil, and mulch. You'll find that you save money, time, and labor.

Hi! This may not really answer your question but I thought I'd add to the conversation since I am in your zone (17) and have mostly containers in my brick patio. I have several large ceramic pots and I have a couple with dwarf trees and a couple with with shrubs in them. Those are like the backbone of my garden~ the woody stemmed plants that I consider "permanent". Then I have several other pots that I plant with combinations of annuals & perennials in a single pot~ herbaceous stemmed plants~ I'll change the annuals every few months with whatever I find at the nursery that has the same watering and sun/shade requirements as the perennial(s) i'm planting it with. The perennials will last a few seasons but when they stop blooming or look tired & ragged, Iknow it's time to pull them out and plant something new. (Perennial just means it lives for 3 years or more~ they do not last forever!) But some good evergreen trees & shrubs for containers that look good year round are Purple Dodonaea, dwarf citrus, Nandina, Chamaecyparis lawsoniana & other dwarf conifers, some Azalea/ rhododendron cultivars, boxwood, Dwarf Alberta Spruce. Also, I like to use organic fertilizers because they improve the soil over time and provide a lot of nutrients but I also use Eleanor's VF-11 diluted in a spray bottle w/ water and just spray it on all my plants once or twice a month. Every plant is different so even though they may all be perennials, some respond well to being pruned, others may not not bloom if you prune. Some plants don't like fertilizers (ie. ferns) while others are heavy feeders.

The Miscanthus is behind the daisies which are Anthemis Susannah Mitchell, which is short with small button blossoms. If you can see a little pink on the right, that is a Knock Out Rose next to the Miscanthus, which hasn't had a yellow leaf on it through this dry spell and last year was the last thing blooming in my yard. The Pennisetum Hamlin is very tame and fits right under that BBush. There are a few others that are taller that are nice. Have you seen the pink blossomed 'Karley Rose'? It is just a little larger than the Hamelin. There is also one called Moudry which I think is gorgeous. BTW, here in zone 5/6 I have not seen a seedling from my Pennisetum. I saw a great combo in someone's front yard... Hardy Hibiscus, Shasta Daisies and Joe Pye Weed with Miscanthus gracillimus. It gets huge and probably wouldn't work for you dtd. But the pretty Pink Hardy Hibiscus, with the Joe Pye Weed was eyecatching. Here is that P. Moudry, wish I had room for that! :-) I just love tabs on a browser, don't you? [g] Nandina are very pretty. They have fall color too, right? Bluestem is great and I wish I had room to grow it. I also love Indian Grass which I didn't dare plant so I put it in a pot this year..lol. Not exactly happy there. [g] You know you are talking about prairie plants there dtd! :-) I see from your OP that you mentioned Joe Pye Weed there already that might be staying. I measured my 'Little Joe' just now and it is about to bloom and stands 45" high. First year in, so don't know if it will get larger. I also measured the bed my Butterfly Bush is in and it is 7ft deep at the point the BBush is planted. I did plant it forward, because my neighbor has an evergreen on the other side of the fence that hangs over a good foot and a half. There are about 5 trees right along my fence line behind that whole bed, so that BBush has to deal with dry conditions for sure. I just looked up 'The Blues'...isn't that so pretty! I came across a grass comparison chart in my travels and posted the link below for anyone interested. Here is a link that might be useful: Grasses comparison chart

Yardvaark- I do like your plan. I actually gave it to the landscape companies and told them to base it on that; Hence my confusion when they can back with things like I posted above (there is another plan too, but it's just as dissimilar). I told them I liked the balance and flow of what you did. I like what I think I would describe as a more natural look (nothing too formal). I love flowers but also want to have some winter appeal, so I know I will need evergreens of different shades/textures. I think I am very limited by the fact that we have deer, and the area is north facing. I know very little about plants and have been googling a lot to figure out what might work. I am sure I want boxwoods, likely in front of the porch. I love hydrangeas, but it seems unclear if we can get them due to deer- landscapers seem mixed on their opinion, but I think I see a number of neighbors with them). I also think walkers low catmint and echinecha might look nice to bring in some color. I put spirea, lamium, brunnera, viburnum, barberry, ilex, leucothoe, and blue star juniper, golden mop, and coreopsis on a list of things that might work (I know, these aren't all specific varieties, I have lists of those too but some have more than 1 type that could work). When looking at flowering perennials, I was trying to find things that would bloom the longest. We have a landscaper that does our lawn so I assume most likely, they would do the garden maintenance. I am happy to learn and do some work, but being a complete novice, I have no idea what I can handle and how complicated things might be. Mostly what I want is for it to look nice from the street. In my head, I think reds or bright pinks, purples and whites, might work well with the the house. In general, I love color so I would be happy to incorporate multiple colors if it works without being "too much." I know I want two trees, balanced like in Yardvaarks design. I think the left red one would probably be a Japanese bloodgood maple. The right....not sure yet. I recently was reading about crepe myrtles, but maybe the flowers would be too much. Maybe the landscapers brought the beds out from where the yardvaark plan is to fit with the scale of the house. The walkway is close to the house so maybe by expanding the tree beds, they are trying to bring in more plantable area to balance the size of the house? I am going to try to find some pictures of things I like. I will post separately. I am sure I missed responding to a few things here. As you can probably tell, I am all over the place and very much overwhelmed and confused.