Sounds like you are adding quite a mixture! You are trying to achieve a soil with a high degree of humus in it. When you compost things to achieve humus, you combine brown organic material with green or nitrogen. The best ratio of these two materials are about 25 browns to 1 nitrogen, by weight. When you prepare your beds, of course you have to use what is available locally. Few of use can afford to truck in large amounts of anything. I like the following ingredients, but will substitute when needed.

Use pine bark mulch, cones and bark nuggets. After aging for 6 months or so, they are excellent for browns, keep the beds aerated and retain moisture. Oak leaves are another excellent source for browns.

Milorganite is a cheap, excellent source for nitrogen and iron. It's a slow release fertilizer that also prevents lots of pests that want to dig in your nice beds. Alfalfa pellets are another excellent source for nitrogen Both alfalfa and pine have components that promote plant growth.

So if I start from scratch, add to a 4" sandy loam bed, 6" of browns and then by weight, add the appropriate amount of nitrogen. Apply a balanced fertilizer, like 10-10-10 to make sure you have adequate P and K. Turn the mixture over several times to make sure everything is combined and keep it moist so composting can take place. After a month of regular watering, you can plant in the bed. I usually work about a cup of milorganite in the mound under each plant. After a season or year, have a soil test performed on the bed and make any adjustments for fertilizing next spring.

I use alfalfa tea for the clematis. It is one cup of alfalfa pellets (ones used for horses) mixed with 5 gallons of water and left in a covered bucket for a couple of days to "ferment" then applied to the base of the plants. When I apply pellets to new or transplants, I generally put it dry on top of the soil, water it well so it gets mushy. It will slowly release into the soil. Then I add a thin layer of mulch. Roses love alfalfa tea too. I use milorganite to ward off the deer and other critters which like to munch on the plants. I can't use fish emulsion products because racoons will dig thinking there is food. But , you seem to have enough fertilized products so why would you need the alfalfa?

I totally forgot to discuss pH. It is probably the most important item in amending your beds. Do soil tests, use instruments or pH strips and verify the pH. You are trying to maintain a pH level around 6.5. All the amending in the world won't help much if the pH is out of bounds.

Good luck, Ed

Thank you so much Ed & Julia, my soil here mainly consisted of limestone & rock, very little topsoil the builder put before they add the sod, so I have someone cleaned up the grass and put the concrete block edge for this new daylily bed, but I still have to take out more rock...Usually on my other beds I add garden soil, humus, compost etc and mix with as little as limestone/white clay/soil that I did not take out of the bed...If I don't have raised bed I don't think I can grow anything here especially during hot summer month, when everything just baked... I got the alfalfa because I read quite a few people like to add it for planting daylily...

Hi Kay,

I am excited to start my experience with daylilies, it's so different when you have it and don't know anything about it (like me) and then start reading and learning from all of you the Daylilies experts, it's so much fun....I hope the daylilies will like their new beds...I'm still not finished (bad knees and other planting need my time) still have lots of rock need to be dig out, thanks for the rains but it is still hard when you get deeper... before I add all my ammendments....Can't wait to see yours arrived Kay...

I planted your gift today Kay !!! I hope they will like their new home and will let you know how they're doing here... Thank you for sharing them with me...