I put alfalfa pellets in my garden and shrub beds here it makes a huge difference in growth and bloom, I also use Osmocote if I have time to get it done. You should have seen my shrubs that the rabbits winter pruned last year I had plenty of alfalfa pellets and decided to put some in the shrub beds. The results were amazing soon you could not see which shrubs the rabbits had almost pruned to the ground and one shrub that never really seemed to grow well suddenly looked very healthy. I use one of those hand spreaders to put down the alfalfa doesn't take so much time as putting it down by hand.