Most dianthus are herbaceous, evergreen perennials. Some species can be very short-lived. There are some that are biennials, like some of the Sweet William varieties. Some people use dianthus AS annuals, and there is nothing wrong with that, but they don't belong in that category. I live in a zone 7a/b, too. We have some dianthus cultivars that have been in the ground for about 7 years, since we moved here. They need to be divided every couple of years or they make a solid mat of icy blue foliage, but have not disappointed us with their blooming. If yours aren't looking so great, perhaps you might consider soil or weather conditions. It's been a very unusual winter for many people, and some have had lots of rain and then more rain. Dianthus is pretty darned tough, but it does not like saturated soil. They are also not without their pest and disease issues. We have very heavy clay soil here, and though the dianthus has flourished up to now, I'm sure keeping an eye on them during this warm, rainy winter we've had.

I disagree on the pic being nice. The over saturated picture above makes the plants look like plastic. The post is not relevant to the question as as far as I'm concerned it's nothing more than an advertisement, and a poor one at that. I doubt sun and drought tolerant plants are a primary concern in this case. It's the north side of a house in New Hampshire. The placement of the plants shows me a case of 'even space-itis', more common with rock positioning than plants. Why are all the rocks in the 'stream bed' the same size? Why are plants placed in front of the boulders? Do they need to be hidden?! Pros should be able to do much better, even in Poway. Kaitlin, The first thing I would do is enlarge the bed, it's too small proportionally to the house and limits your choices as to what can be used. I would also pretty much stick with evergreens next to the house and deck. Deciduous plants used in a foundation situation don't do the job in winter. The gaps, when used with evergreens looks like missing teeth to me, snow or otherwise. I used to design and install a lot of yard makeovers as well as new garden construction. As a landscaper, I would kill the lawn, till it in, throw the edges in toward the back of the middle and cover the whole area with trucked in topsoil, leaving it low around the edges to make room for the mulch. Now you can plant, and the digging is fast and easy! I would have evergreen plants about waist high around most of the deck with something taller where it meets the sidewalk. Those plants can act as a railing for the deck on the deck side. On the side facing the driveway I would plant those 'railing plants' several deep so as to appear as a drift instead of a hedge. That gives the bed some visual flow and can be enhanced from there by adding different plants to enlarge the drift and conform to the shape of the bed. In front of the glassed in area I would take a different approach and design the area looking at it from the inside. Lower evergreen shrubs next to the glass in the middle and a little taller on the edges. There's room for a small deciduous tree out in front of the glass a ways and another on either side, one being on the other side of the walk. Those trees should have an interesting branching form for Winter interest and good Fall color too. Japanese maples come to mind. :-) You don't want something that looks like a brush pile when the leaves are gone. (Lilac, Quince, etc. An evergreen groundcover that can handle shade is a must in my book. It ties it together. The small leaved deciduous trees gives it shade further out in the sun in the summertime and the groundcover swallows the leaves in the Fall. I'm not too familiar with what you can grow in your Zone, but I'm sure the people that are can help with plant selection. It's the concept is what I'm communicating. Mike

My calculations based on Moore-Sikora tables is 50#/k (give or take a couple of pounds) if you use a 90-95 CCE lime like fast acting lime. If you want to go with their recommendation: for a 90-95 CCE lime like fast acting lime, you'd apply about 80#/k. Maximum recommended rate for fast acting lime is 48#/k in any 1 year total and no more than 24#/k in any one application. So 2 24#/k apps. To reduce adverse affects, apply early Spring (ASAP for you) and mid (if you get ground freeze) to late Fall (if you don't get ground freeze). Also avoid applying less than 2 weeks of another fertilizer application. If you feel energetic, you could do 4 12#/k applications 60 days apart, 3 9#/k apps every 60 days over two years, etc*. I prefer the two app. *You can go less aggressive and reduce the amounts and spread them over a couple of years which you will need to do if you go with the university rec of 100#/k (80 of fast acting). Your choice. Btw: TEC is Total Exchangeable Cations and CEC is Cation Exchange Capacity. They mean the same thing. Did you get a separate sheet with their NPK recs? The sheet you attached above just has dashes where the numbers would normally be. Good luck.

It would be lovely to see the bed in context, showing then entire length of the bed and its surroundings including the house, any trees, driveway and walkway locations, etc. If you stand opposite the front door about 15' out and then take a series of photos that overlap starting facing the left property line and then rotating and taking photos as you turn to end up facing the right property line. 2' wide (front to back depth) isn't deep enough to make an attractive arrangement IME. I originally had 4' beds, but they ended up looking far too narrow to look good with the house, and so now my narrowest beds are 6' and most are 8' or more. The depth gives room for shrubs to provide structure and winter interest at the back and then a combination of groundcovers, perennials, and bulbs toward the front. It is difficult to make a single straight line of plants look truly appealing IME. It may seem like that is overkill and will require many plants, but if you choose plants that are easily divided (like your hosta) or started from seed, the space will fill faster than you think. What is the shrub growing by the trellis?