Very nice. You've achieved a nice full look very quickly. You'd never know you were bargain hunting. Great job!

So pretty! Some people are just born with a green thumb. ;)

BTW: Any chance we could see that beautiful Boxer’s face?

Hi Sammy :-) you are so nice! Of course ... Here she is

ps... Don't mind she's still wearing her Halloween outfit (collar)

What a sweet girl! How old is she? (I had a fawn female puppy a few years ago.)

this doesn't look like the garden of a beginner!..I agree with jan..not sure that I would remove that bed..would you like it more if you changed some of the plants?..

you should have taped up your komodo dragon before planting it in the urn ..ken

OMG what are you feeding those plants? This is one year? Wowsers, it's gorgeous. I think I will cry if you take out the bed and put in grass. It's so much prettier than grass and ultimately will consume far less water. Plus that bed is phenomenal. Please, pretty please, I'm begging you! Haha. But seriously, do what works best for you. But if you want a vote, I'm "team hosta".

I like your urn with orb and pot with hostas as well. Those are nice touches to add interest but not too much. Love the japanese maple up front as well, beautiful contrast to the white brick.

I'm seriously envious of your gardens!

Amazing for a 1st year garden.

Less lawn is better than less hostas..........

I agree, it looks great and very healthy. I also cannot imagine removing plants for grass. We hardly have any grass left! Perennial beds seem so much easier to me, and much more interesting through the entire growing season. Your dog is adorable! I have to admit that I love the chipmunks, though. :)

By the way, I really like the look of the Alliums popping up between the hostas.

Hello everyone, I am sorry I should have explained a little more about my plants. It's certainly not my green thumb :-) I was just extremely blessed last year.

our neighborhood was established in 1968, so was our house. We bought our house 2013 as a total fixer upper. There was no landscaping except the lace leaf tree and a big oak leaf hydrangea. Our backyard has no patio and no grass, just trees and fallen wood from probably 40 years. The lady who owned our house was old, had 5 children which she raised on her own. The house showed it on the outside and inside. We had for just the scraping of all the wood roots, so we in our own could seed grass an estimate for $5000. At the moment this isn't in the budget.

well.. Back to the plants. The neighborhood is "up coming" many small homes are build on big lots and people from Birmingham come, buy the lot and tear everything down, to build a monster house. I was able to rescure from two lots plants. It was hard work. I literally dug from clay the roots out - of course with permission of the new owners and just popped the plants it to the ground in my garden.

The best plants (Hostas) I got from my neighbor across the street. They purchased their house just before us. The rumor is that the house belonged before them a hobby gardener who loved Hostas. The lady who moved in, is in a wheelchair and they wanted some real easy landscaping and got rid of several already very big plants. They tossed the plants in August in the ditch, after a week me eying the plants, I called and asked if I could have them and they said yes.

for the Hosta bed in the front... I think what bothers me is that it is kidney shaped, I physically could not cut it better with all the roots at the surface and I think I tend to like geometric lines.

You can expand the bed by laying cardboard or newspaper in layers over grass or weeds. Cover with mulch and leave for a few weeks/months. Grass will die. No digging required.

If you have tree roots plant the smallest divisions or plants you can find to work in pockets between the roots. Water a lot initially to help them establish.

I used this method to create a new bed in my lawn as well as to expand a bed under a large river birch. Has worked really well for minimum effort. I got free wood mulch from a tree trimmer and scrounged cardboard from the neighbours. : ) If you did this now you could plant in fall or spring. Worms seem to love the cardboard and they help to break up the sod and soil.

That's a great tip! Than you

These look great for year old beds. Rescuing plants is a great idea to save money and get mature plants at the same time. You should be proud of what you created. Make sure to keep photos - it will amaze you to look back on it in a few years.

What a great idea to rescue those plants. No sense in them going to waste. Like Kaillean, I have also had to plant between tree roots, and my hostas and other plants happily come up every year. They may not be as big as they would be somewhere else, but otherwise they look healthy. I like swooping, curved lines, so that's probably part of why I like your bed!

Such an interesting beginning and such wonderful results!

Sherry

Hello lecoros4fun, we have been getting quotes for someone helping us remove fallen trees (wood - my husband already cut it in pieces) and the scraping of the ground so the roots of the brush is gone. We would seed ourselves.

If you know anybody reasonable we would be very grateful for a contact.

i did had a few guys coming pick up some wood for their wood burning stove. But than their trailer broke and they could get more :-(

This is all the shrub that grew back the last couple of years. I had it hand cut down as far I could, but keeps coming back.

The shrub had taken the yard over to the white stick. The family (kids of the lady) didn’t do anything in the 50 years she lived in the house.

they let their mom live in this house where the windows where so broken they couldn’t be closed. They stayed open about 5 inches even in winter. To cover the issue the children (already in the 40’s we met them at closing) put plastic flowers in front of the window. I would be ashamed letting my mom live in such conditions.

Anyways back to the yard ... here is my hubby taking such a crabby shrub out of the ground where I started my Hosta bed.

Stones are for a patio we are going to lay this summer :-)

Here is a shot of my “woodland” Hosta garden. (Not macht erfinderisch:-)

Nice job!

lol, Claudia, Not macht erfinderisch? You made a good job covering your woodland with hosta. They are perfect to fill up such a space. Are they all planted or have you already some in pots? Which plants do you have between hosta? Ever considered to add some color and height with a Japanese Maple or something flowering brightly? Especially where those shrubs grow...

When I started it was hosta only, but within the last years I added small trees, peonies, fern, heuchera and even an astilbe (because astilbe look so nice between Donna's hosta).

We're in Michigan and had much the same situation. The brushy/bushy stuff in ours turned out to be buckthorn...thank you to our birds, NOT. Took a few years, a lot of Roundup, a whole bunch of swearing and sweat, plus vigilant observation, to get rid of it. I too, love hostas, ferns, and hakonechloa. Never enough in my opinion. Pretty beds and kudos on the rescue!

Looks great! How do you keep the deer away?

Thanks Pete! When I see them I sent my dog outside - she gets a good run.

i noticed a “rout” where the deer seam to enter my yard, so I planted a lot of “disposable” hostas as a buffer for my new special ones.

The front yard is a different situation, my limelight’s look terrible.