excessive vegetative growth is often related to hyper fertilization ...

its usually the high N .... as that is usually lawn food ... and when you put too much on.. well. you usually end up complaining you have to mow it too often ..

did you use last years media in the same pots... could you have left over fert from last season.. plus all you added this season ... do you water so you actually flush out excess ... or need to replace it so often???

ken

I may have left some of last year's media in the pots, yes - but I replenished most of it.

In the raised bed it was all new (Kellog's).

I do add a bit of slow release Osmocote in the containers upon planting but I understood this is standard practice.

I DO water the rest of the week until water drips through.

I still don't know why I get this salad when so many people using that PW fertilizer boasts about how amazing it is and how much bloom they get with once a week use.

I guess all I can do is to decrease fertilizer altogether and see what happens.

I am just afraid that when I don't get enough blooms again, I will think it was the sparse fertilization that caused it.

I see trees in your pictures. Are they blocking some of that morning sun? It's possible the light you have isn't enough for your choices. Does your rose bloom well? Have you tried a few test plants labeled shade or part shade? They'll either sunburn or thrive, and either way you learn something about your space. You can also embrace leaves and choose more colorful ones. Mix them with the flowering plants. Then you have something besides green without the wait for blooms. Foliage plants are bright and beautiful from the moment you plant them. Also, less deadheading.

Thank you, Edie, I am glad you mentioned this.

I thought about these routes recently - try some shade plants there and see how they do.

Begonias or impatients? I love foliage but I am a bloom nut and even the most beautiful foliage doesn't seem to do it for mei if there are no blooms.

I have always wondered whether my four over-the-rail containers on the upper deck receive enough sun for big bloom annuals. I am still not sure. The results seem to suggest they may be getting enough sun for SOME bloom, but not for MAXIMUM/full coverage bloom.

They are closer to the house than the lower deck so when the sun goes on the other side they get in the shade sooner. They get direct sun there until about 2 pm - but some get in the shade quicker than others as the sun moves on the other side.

I'll need to switch gears, apparently.

Thanks a lot!

Everybody talks about too much N.

Let's discuss too much N. In the gardens, I toss organics, and feed weekly with my own mix (mostly urea) at a rate of 0.25 pounds of N per week per thousand square feet. It's a grand total of well over 2 pounds N per month, or far beyond the recommendation.

The pots...succulents, perennials, and bulbs are treated rather gently and with organic feeding. Annuals I feed the absolute heck out of. Miracle-Gro plus organics every two weeks. Plus some other stuff I throw in, like some extra urea. And kelp.

The result of "too much" N is a lot of blooms--just on gigantic plants (photo below of a strictly average year, August 10th). The difference here is that I've had the soil tested, balanced the garden soil to a decent pH of 6.3 (with a proper calcium-magnesium-potassium ratio, or, don't use a home test which tells you exactly nothing about the right balance), set the phosphorus levels high and balanced other resources high to compensate for phosphorus antagonism, etc.

It's not everybody's cup of tea, and some plants absolutely do object to too much N. But...most don't. And in the past, petunias, lantanas, have all been amongst those in my garden that haven't. Actually, ask me about the three foot tall lantana with the tap root I couldn't get out for two years. Gorgeous. Sturdy. Never repeated.

morphuspa,

I could only dream of that level of bloom production! Thank you for the fertilization tips.

So if it's not overfertilization with too much N, then maybe it really is about my positioning.

Maybe it's something as simple as not enough hours of direct sun. Your garden seems to be in the middle of one super-sunny patch. Gorgeous indeed!

That is overfertilized with N to the point that, if there were a poster garden for N overfertilization, this would be that garden.

It's also a southwestern face of the garden, which receives sunlight from two hours after sunrise until an hour before sunset, without much pause (maybe an hour while a trim tree cuts the light, but that's all). Figure that whole garden sees 6 to 10 hours of sun per day, depending. Plus reflected light.

Nothing's really all that simple--you can pour on the N if the plant can use it. Mine certainly can. If they can't, they'll let you know with spindly, leggy, easily-broken growth that's pale and weak. I've done this in pots, in the soil, with some succulents, with annuals...it's often true.

I haven't tried it--and wouldn't--with a cactus or very slow-growing or sensitive succulents. Those do object to being forced but usually simply respond by not growing and obstinately sitting there.