I have a blank slate. Landscaper put in some funky evergeen ground cover, a small tree, mulch and called it a flower bed. It is about an 8 inch layer of sand over red clay. Yesterday I took out the ground cover turned over what was left of the mulch, (this stuff went in Sept. of 06)smoothed it out. Now I want to prep for plants. We have a marshy area close by so I plan to get a good supply of dirt from there, it should be full of healthy worms, I don't have any, and leaf compost. The trip to the horse farm for the good stuff didn't turn out to well. I will add mulched oak leaves and some local dirt. Then I want Hostas! It is still cool here so I guess I will be about 3 or 4 weeks putting this together. The area gets lots of sun so I am concerned. I have read that they can take the sun, our old house had several in the sun and a few in mostly shade that didn't do well. They also may have been dwarfs,not sure. Is the plan overkill, or does it need something else? I want this space to get color from the leaves not flowers so I want to use caladiums and coleus. I think the range of color will be out of this world. Can Hostas be used as boarder plants?