Nice to hear from you again, Chemocurl! Great suggestions. I want to mull over them more closely. The potting idea is particularly interesting. Thanks so much! Denni, your garden sounds fabulous. Thanks for the tips & info. Donna, yes, distracting from the foliage w/other plants is a great idea. Timing will help me determine if that is possible for me. Thanks. I need to further study each of your helfpul responses. So far, have only planted annuals in that front bed. Here is a pic of the Sunpatiens I planted the 1st week of May. Just pulled them out this week & they were twice as big as in this pic. As you can see, there are evergreen shrubs in the background. The camellias (round shrubs on left) are in full bloom (hot pink) now, until about Feb. 1. The in front of the shrubs is empty right now, save for a small stone bird bath to the left. That's o.k. too, as winter should look a little more sparse, imo! Have thought about putting in some pansies, but the scale is off, I think, as p's are so small & delicate. I may circle a pine tree to the left (not in pic) w/pansies. I had regular impatiens that grew like crazy around it all summer. As you can see, the style of the planting area is fairly "tailored," clean & simple, not "English cottage" at all (which I love, btw). A more free-flowing approach would not suit the space, imo. I live in the suburbs now! Thanks again for all your help. Here is a link that might be useful:

Thanks for your reply. I'm not sure that this belongs in this thread but I don't know where to go instead so please move me if appropriate. I've ended up discussing the potting mix which I know has many threads elsewhere, but my questions do continue on from my problem, which did resemble the potted plants above. Upon further consideration I think the problems are probably soil compaction and soggy soils more than nitrogen deficiency. I think the light and nutritional needs are probably not the limiting factors so I'll think about them later. Over the past 5 years I have been working hard to research the best way to care for my potted plants but have been headed in a completely different direction than Al recommends and it probably hasn't been helping longer term. I have been buying decent quality readymade potting mix, adding lots of compost and/or manure, and maybe coir peat and then using organic liquid fertilisers like fish emulsion and Seasol conditioner. And I get great results....for about 3 to 6 months, then things slow down or start to decline. At first I think I get pretty OK drainage but I am guessing that all the lovely organic additions have been breaking down to release their nutrients and smaller particles have settled to the bottom to clog up the drainage, and they also make the soil retain too much moisture. Or perhaps the soil retained too much moisture all along but in Spring and Summer the heat drying out the mix reduced the impact enough to keep the plants going OK. And early on the roots didn't reach the soil at the bottom that stayed saturated, so the problem hadn't arisen yet. Do they sound like reasonable assumptions? I realise that potted plants do need repotting, I can't expect them to stay happy in a pot for years, but I just can't manage to repot everything every year, or even less. So I will need to bite the bullet and try and track down some affordable perlite to try out the 5-1-1 recipe, and gradually change over my plants as I can afford to. And then keep the organic methods for the garden. (And maybe for some quick growing annuals and veggies that won't be in the pots that long anyway?) Since a number of my plants are in pots because they won't tolerate the "wet feet" that are a result of the heavy clay soil in the garden, I don't know why it never occurred to me to actually make sure the potting mix would be any better!

I've read half of the book. I'll finish it. Hopefully, there is something in there for me. So far, I'm not inspired. She is going through trial and error like the rest of us do in finding what works and what doesn't. While it is nice to purge, I suspect she likes a simpler, more streamlined house than I do. I actually enjoy having some of what she would consider clutter around. What she would consider clutter is what I consider possibilities and inspiration even if I never get around to using it. I know what she says. To me, folded clothes are more work. I went to hanging almost all of my clothes about ten years back because it was easier to see them. When I start running out of hangers, It's time to go through and purge some things that don't fit or are many not in nice shape anymore. I lose folded clothes. The folded sideways thing does not work for me. To each their own. Her methods might be useful for some people.

I agree. My oldest has ben living with her BF for 6 years. No plans for marriage and both don't want kids. They have a terrific relationship. And, we get along very well with him. They come up to spend weekends with us, sometimes spur of the moment. I have a feeling that my youngest would be more inclined to adopt. She is currently very involved in dog rescue. She has placed all of the dogs in her care so far. Amazing, in that the last one was a 10 ten year old hound mix with a severe limp due to some injury! A friend of mine, who didn't have kids of her own, (second marriage for both, her dh had two kids and didn't want more, and she relented) is now involved with her step grand kids and her grand nieces and nephews. She hinted that my life was lacking! I bluntly said that although it would be nice, it isn't something that I dwell on. It's their choice, not mine. Maybe we need a support group for grandchildless parents?