The way I usually do it, Leslie, is spread my alfalfa meal over the entire bed, spread the fertilizer around the iris plants (as you say, not ON them) Then scratch it all in with one of those 3-tined hand cultivators (I have one with a long handle). That gets it into the top 1' (or so) of soil, and gets the soil loosened up, ready for my weed control to be applied.
