Phil,

How do you get water to this bed. Do you overhead water with a sprinkler or do you just treat it as "dry shade?"

Steve

Steve,God supplies all the water the hostas,and other plants need;and this spring,he has supplied plenty! This area will soon be in dappled shade,and the hostas love it here. Phil

Oooh, Phil. I would love to mosey around that walkway. Special request...could you take photos once a week from the exact same spot and post them so we can watch Spring happen in your nect of the woods?

-Babka

Hey,Babka,and others! Here's another view,looking uphill toward that garden. Phil

{{gwi:959078}}

Oh, I love that setting. Beautiful!

Seeing those hostas unfurling gives me a serious case of zone envy.

You have a wonderful garden. I love how your paths wander throughout the hostas.

Phil, very nice landscape! So you must have 10 months of gardening season, 7 or 8 months hosta season. Yes, I also got that zone envy, but then summer is not as hot up here in zone 5a. I have to wait another 4-5 weeks for that!
Bernd

Thanks Phil for posting, I was wondering what kind of clean up do you do. Do you remove leaves, or just let them be? Absolutely beautiful, restful, makes me want to take a walk!

Mj,I first rake the paths,then a little at a time,remove leaves from inside the planting beds. I don't do anything at all until spring. The plants get extra protection that way,from winter. Not that it gets that cold here,but it's cold enough for me! I don't want to live any further north,as we get four seasons,and a long growing season. Because I am in the mountains,we are zone6,but farther east and most of NC is zone7. I'm going to try to make a garden bench this year,because I get tired of standing on the side of the hill. Phil

Phil that is a gorgeous setting. I brought a 4 acre property and I want to grow up and be like you one day. LOL

How about this bench?

{{gwi:959079}}

Wow, Phil!

What a difference one zone makes!

Here in SE WI we have daffs and tulips and a few other brave perennials up a few inches...but no sign of hostas yet...they are some of the last to poke through. A long, cold Spring here has slowed the growing process.

Not looking forward to tonight and tomorrow...strong storms headed our way with possible 1" hail and damaging winds...won't hurt the hostas, but I'm always afraid of what we may have to pick up if we have straight line winds.

Thanks for showing your beauties. I love the look of new leaves unfurling in the Spring. What kinds of trees are those (the ones with the skinny trunks) in your second photo?

Julie

Julie,most of the ones you see with the skinny trunks are native Dogwoods. They have to reach up to get light because of the Oaks above them. Phil

Hey Babka! Here it is,a week later with the view of part of my garden. Lots has happened,with more hostas leafing out. Take a new look. Phil

{{gwi:921847}}

Oh, Phil, what fun to scroll back and forth between the two photos. All that growth in just a week...by next week you won't see the ground around the hostas. Will you take one next week too? Please?

-Babka

I have loved your garden since I first saw it. Your garden is so peaceful looking. Love, love your pathways. Wish ma nature would water my garden all summer.
Marquest, do you have the bench or is it something you are thinking about? I like it.

Beautiful, Phil!!
Karen

Beautiful woodsy gardens. Can't get any better than that.

Keep the pictures coming, Phil. Here we just did a 1 step forward and 2 steps back thing with our weather yesterday - but it is all gone this evening. Stayed above freezing so all is good and we have been dry....

Looking out thru the neighbors back yard -

Daylilies, but no hostas unfurled, so no harm....last year on this date the tulips were blooming. What a difference from last year.

Paul

Gee Paul,that looks like last February here! OK,here is another pic looking down from my upper garden in the last pics. I love this little planting bed with the Ostrich fern I planted a few years ago. I planted one tiny plant and the ferm multiplied,because it is rhizomatous,and spreads underground all under the hostas. This place is growing so fast that a picture taken today will look entirely different tomorrow. Phil

{{gwi:959082}}

Hmm. I considered Ostrich Ferns, but I decided against them due to the invasive nature of their growth pattern. Have you had experience with these plants? Anyone else use these as companion plants?

Steve

I'm enjoying this.

bkay

I like Maidenhair and Japanese Painted ferns, they stay smaller, but have at least 2 others which grew here originally. One kind gets 3 ft tall and is a big clump, but does not run. The running kinds of fern are invasive and I take out the runners, IMO ferns and hostas should be kept separate.
Bernd

Bernd,if I couldn't plant hostas near ferns,then I wouldn't have a hosta garden at all. There are native ferns all over my woods,and I never touch them. That's what makes it a garden,instead of just a collection of hostas. All the experts I have read,recommend ferns and hostas together. But that's just what I think,and I like the variety and different textures. Phil

Phil, I have the experience that some ferns muscle into other plants. I agree that hostas and ferns are a good combination by their leaf textures. I.e. I have not seen that hostas take over a planting bed, but I have seen that with some ferns which run. In respect to that 3ft tall fern I have, its 'crown' finally reached probably 5 ft diameter, and I had to cut it back.
Otherwise in respect to hostas, I have now 'liftoff' in zone 5a, Royal Standard, Elisabeth and Empress Wu are showing their eyes, some Hellebores are in full bloom.
Bernd

Bernd,these particular Ostrich ferns are small,maybe 12 inches tall,and it took years to get to where they are now. At this rate,I will be gone from this earth before they "take over" that hosta bed. I had,when I lived in Florida, a patch of Ostrich Plume ferns by my front door. Apparently these ferns I have now are not the same fern. The ones in Florida,were 3 or 4 feet tall,and very aggressive,but I had other woody plants in the same bed and they were not overwhelmed by the ferns. Whatever,I like other plants among my hostas,and the worst thing around here is the wild Honeysuckle vines which abound in the woods. They climb up everything,and this garden in the picture was overrun with them before I ever put the first hosta there. Even now,I have to 'beat back' the jungle every year,just to keep them at bay. Phil

Phil, I agree with you that a 'mono-culture' of hostas is not that appealing, other plants are needed. There I have rhodos and azaleas, primulas, epimedium, ligularia for example. Clearing up my last part of the woods, total lot is only 1/2 acre, went in steps. I actually edited the landscape by removing first the overly agressive plants and weeds. I will show some pictures in summer, hopefully then got Firefox 4 and Yahoo straightened out.
Bernd

Attn: Babka! Here is the garden one week later. I think I may have to discontinue this pic,because the folks up north are starting to get seriously PO'd at me. Phil

{{gwi:959083}}

I'm LOVIN' the sequence, Phil. Have you marked the exact spot with a rock as to where you are supposed to stand each time? Could you take one more photo when they are fully opened????? Then you could make a new post with 4 sequential photos. That would be fun to see instead of having to scroll up and down this long thread. Just a suggestion.....please, please? There are no woods with hostas in them around here at all.

-Babka

No,Babka,I just stand in the path in the same,(well relatively the same place),and take a new shot. At the rate Olive Bailey Langdon is growing,it shouldn't take long! Phil