Peren, wow, so nice what you did! And they appear very happy.

Thank you! The 1st pic is early season and the 2nd pic is later season but the plants are only on their second year. We would love to see pics if you proceed with your plan!

My plan is to dig out and replant two six year old guacamole hostas. They were planted as a group of five but have grown together too much.

I am so past mass planting of hosta now that I see its variety. I have ordered for May delivery a Ben Vernooij, Brother Stefan, Curly Fries, Majesty, and Red Dragon hostas, and two Lady in Red ferns. My plan was to grow them up in patio containers then divide in a few years to supplement the yard. I probably should have ordered two of everything but I had not decided on this new bed at that point.

I will post a pic of the transplanted guacamole. It will be the first planted to the new bed I created last week. We have very clay soil, so I amended in a lot of bags of soil conditioner as I eventually plan the bed to be a mix of conifers and other semi-sun plants. In the meantime I am growing most everything in pots and the immediate use of the bed will be overwintering the pots into the ground on the top flat portion.

Here it is inow.

Arrived today from New Hampshire Hosta, from left, Sapphire Pillows, Effervescent, Island Breeze and Brother Stefan.

I actually wish I had some kind of slope. I agree with peren.all, it would show off all the plants better.

That slope doesn't look too steep. Hosta like water and it can be more difficult getting them the water they need on a steeper slope. Especially in the clay soil I live in that doesn't absorb the water quickly, but holds onto it when it does.

It has a decent slope, maybe 30 degrees?

It is 8 feet wide, you can see the pips of the mature Guacamole hosta I moved.

I view our backyard as a labrador corral. Our neighbor has a beagle corral.

Looking north. This was my vegetable garden. The giant oaks in our yard and our neigbor to the south's yard so limit the sun to mostly dappled light, crop yields fell. Whenever I brought in a small bucket of cherry tomatoes it was devastating to hear how low was their market value for all the effort of planting and watering. With food inflation it might be better now.

Hostas seem more fun though, they like shade, don't complain, hopefully don't get eaten by a deer.

An incline that can't be mowed easily is the perfect place for a lot of perennials!!! My neighborhood uses hosta or day lilies depending on the side of the road.

You better do more than hope they don't get eaten by deer. Get active in deer prevention. We have two doodles that help chase them off but they can't patrol all the time. I use Liquid Fence that works well, but I'm afraid I'm using it too much and they'll get used to it. Plus it becomes less effective in the rain. I also bought these little canisters on stiff wires a couple years ago called Deer Off that work in rain but have limited range. I'm pretty sure they contain blood meal so I just refill with that every year. I'm sorry, you didn't ask about deer proofing and I just went off on you.

Good pic of the slope. Lucky for you it is short enough I don't think it will be an issue but rather an asset to display them better. I took a better pic of my slope although you still can't tell how steep the drop-off is in the distance (too steep to walk without destroying the ground/mulch that tends to wash away on the hill you can't see) or even next to the driveway in front of me (which is tricky to walk up/down). But it does show the garden slope which is what matters most. If I can make this work (albeit with some poorly performing Hosta) You should be fine.

Steve, very cool garden. I did not realize Ohio was so hilly.

I do have professional canine garden patrol, but it only partially works at night when all she can do is bark from inside.

The backyard neighbor is the junior high school and they leave the 40 foot wide area between the properties undisturbed, which mostly grows buckthorn.

Most of mine are on a slope. This side yard is probably the steepest, or nearly.

I have hostas on a much steeper slope and the two biggest problems are getting enough water to them before it runs down, but I have sandy soil so it seems to sink in well enough. I don't know if that's a problem where you are.

And the other thing is the slope does shift ever so slowly. So smaller hostas need something behind them like rocks or a little wall of some sort or else the crowns can become buried too deep over time. But I've had no problem with the larger hostas when it comes to that.

I have clay soil. I do have to top dress the crowns with compost or mulch in early winter due to heave (or erosion of soil from crowns).

Yes I think the toughest part is figuring out how to keep the soil from washing away. I had a berm years ago, but it’s evened out over time due to erosion. ☹️

Good luck with your plan——you have planned it out nicely!

debra

I finally received all my hostas and planted the slope. Sapphire Pillows, Curly Fries, Guacamole (mature transplant), Japanese Forest Grass:

Forest Grass, Red Dragon, Brother Stefan, Island Breeze, Effervescent

Effervescent, Maui Buttercups, Majesty

Majesty, May, Purple Hearts or Haze (order was Hearts, tag was Haze):

Purple Hearets/Haze, Blue Mammoth

Great start! So, what's going in at the top? A Japanese Maple perhaps?

And Mike, that is a nice-looking bed. The fence really reveals the slope.

My plan is to add japanese maples and connifers that I am growing in patio planters after they develop better roots and outgrow their use on the patio.

One year later:

From left: sapphire pillows, ogi tsuma gaki,4ever goldy, japanese forest grass, red dragon, baby blue pisifera, brother stephan, island breeze, fire chief arborvitae, maui buttercups, effervescent, peve starfish, yellow ribbon arborvitae, majesty, may, purple haze

You must be very happy with the progress, it looks great!

I planted Sum and Substance on a steep hill but ended up moving it. I didn't like the look of a tilted and bent hosta. I made a flat "shelf" for it and that was also odd. There was also the problem of soil building up as mentioned above.

Peren, thank you! It makes me happy to set up something I can rely on perpetually.

Peren, I think the best thing I learned on these forums and looking at yours and others photos is to include blue hostas. They are not really my favorite color, but they bring out the greens and yellows of other hostas.

Thanks so much for the update…. We often don’t get to see the result. It looks terrific!

debra

There is a great deal of satisfaction in having a plan in mind and seeing it come to life! Knowing it will just get better as the years go by is the best part. So happy we have enabled you to get an appreciation for the blues. It is so fun mixing all the colors, textures and leaf shapes.