I am just now redoing some gardens with a huge one coming up next week.
I use compost as my plant food.
Topdress a garden or two a year after the plants are cut back (easier). That way mother nature all winter can get the nutrients down to the roots.
When redoing a garden, yards of compost get added after the plants are dug out and placed on a tarp. So easy to replant them too, with all that fresh soft compost. Just make sure that it is not steaming. Ask me how I know!
A daylily bed just yesterday was turned into a hosta/shade garden. That was my 'late' daylily bloomers all collected into one area. It was a failure. In the middle of other daylily beds with all their dead or dying scapes (some pods) and I had to walk to it to enjoy it. Lord knows where all those lates are now going! Planned on putting them in other cottage gardens but they don't have many holes amongst the perennials. Oh dear...
