Sorry Rick, I thought that anyone gardening on the west coast had heard of Annie's Annuals. It's quite the experience & I've been told frequently of the adrenaline rush experienced by the addicted. So many fun plants & so many NOT gonna make it here! But, I digress...
I concur with all your posted points. This is why I highly encourage those starting down the garden path to gather information, check the anxiety at the door & just experiment. We learn from mistakes as well as from the guidance of others in all matters, including the growing of plants. I so appreciate the shared experience of others as it helps me decide how to proceed down a given pathway.
My knowledge base is strongest in the arena of trees & shrubs because I had the room to grow them over a prolonged period. Annuals, though, have required more experimentation, continuing to this day. It was hard to conceive of something that would perish at the end of the season, especially after living in Hawaii. (Everything continues to live, which hones one's pruning skills! Poinsettias being the Hawaiian equivalent of Wisteria in the pruning department.) What I have concluded is to mimic, as best as possible, the native environment of the plants. Some are quite fussy & simply won't thrive, but many adapt & do so quite well. And then there are some we need to pamper. All the charts & data are snapshots of regions over periods of time. Useful to a degree, but I typically return to pushing the envelope!
Annie's perspective on water consumption was quite interesting.
