Where do you live? What plants are you growing? How long have
they been growing?

I read my original message, and I realize that I forgot to mention my
zone!

I live in zone-6 in northern New Jersey. Here spring and early summer
is kind of wet. Summer can be hot and dry (probably not as hot as in
southern states though). Fall will cool down (I don't remember if fall
is wet or dry).

The plants in my garden is a mix of olds and news. Perennial are
mainly old (I have recently added some shasta daisy and bulbs though).
Annuals are all newly planted; the garden didn't have any annual
before. By and large, my garden is quite "standard".

I will follow the "stick my fingers into the soil" approach suggested
by a couple newsgroup members. That makes sense.

Thanks.

Jay Chan