mamu - they ARE in the new flower bed. I honestly don't really know what I do to get them to fill out so fast.
It must be the compost from my huge compost pile.
I have horses, so when I clean the stalls the shavings and droppings go into a large pile. We add the lawn clippings, and the debris from the garden to the huge pile. Occassionally we take the tractor and "move" the pile to mix it up and turn it over. This year we added in the extra soil I had brought in to fill in the new garden beds. We mixed it after that - and I expect to have some awesome compost for next year's main garden.
Anyway, when I planted up the beds... the soil we brought in was very bad - so I mixed in about 4 inches of compost into each of the beds from the very bottom of the pile (the oldest most decomposed stuff). It is a start - but I need to keep doing this for a number of years to improve the soil composition.
I also used a general slow release fertilizer about 3 weeks after the plants were planted in. I gave them time to get established before applying it. Other than that... I water each bed for 20 minutes with a shower sprinkler (soaks it) each week, and I keep the weeds at bay. Occassionally I take the garden shears and just cut off the top 1/3 of the plants like the daisies and the verbena - which encourages lots of new and bushy growth.
Now that I think about it... I think my secret might be our sunshine. It is almost always bright and sunny here. I think the plants thrive on the sunshine.
Don't daisies just make you ... SMILE!?
</center>
