One of my neighbors purchased a house that had been vacant for 7 years, and the garden not tended for many more. What she found was: A large area of blackberry thicket, out of which was growing and blooming 2 very old Madame Caroline Testout roses. They had climbed up a nearby plum tree to get light, and were also growing over the fence and onto the next door neighbor's roof of their one story house. A mature apricot tree right in the middle of the back yard - it was twisted and very old, but still bloomed and bore fruit. LOTS of volunteer trees - plums, eugenie, privet, and eucalyptus, to name a few. Also some huge pine trees on the perimeter, which had been there for ages. My garden was not abandoned, but little had been done to it for 20 years when we moved into our house. It had at least 50 surviving roses - most of the survivors were teas, hybrid wichuranas, or other really old roses. A couple of the teas had gotten huge - maybe 15 feet wide, and 8-9 feet tall. There were 5 surviving hybrid teas, but they had dwindled, and did not bloom (except for Cl La France, as noted below). The old old roses had gotten bigger, and bloomed a huge amount. Thornless (thank heavens!) blackberry had taken over an area at the back of the property about 20 ft square, and there was another area where volunteer fig and plum trees had made a sort of forest. That's where Cl La France had climbed up the trees, and was blooming and disporting itself in the canopy. Old bulbs were still coming up in the Spring, all over the garden. Jackie

whatttt?????? you said: They look a little ridiculous as the leaves are sooo crowded. that is kinda the whole point of a mature clump of hosta ... no need to EVER divide a clump .... unless you need the exercise ... but if you want to dig them up year after year ... feel free .. they are your hosta .... most hosta start looking ratty in august .... so that is a good time to dig and divide .. yes.. they will look like heck for the rest of the year ... but will be just peachy in spring ... dig up half the clump.. insert shovel.. jump on it until you get through it... then rip out half ... or quarter it ... or do surgery down to 1000 individual pieces ... as long as it has the leaves.. a piece of crown and a root .. it will probably grow .... or just throw them on the driveway and run them over a few time.. and plant the bits and pieces .. and you will have a 1000 new plants ... they are hosta.. you are going to have to try real hard to kill them ... good luck ken

The slope looks like a similar area that was on the undeveloped adjoining property. This area was placed such that it made my yard look bad. The first thing I did was go in with a brush blade on my trimmer, and cut every thing down. Once the area was at a height that I could see what was there, I went in with a mattock and cut out every thing that would damage the mower and leveled all ruts so I could mow through them. From then on I mowed the area with my lawn mower. After a couple of years of mowing, from a distance, looks like a nice lawn. The slope look like it is less that the slope in front of my house. I mow it sailboat style, sitting on the high side. If time is a problem and you are not working under the "protection" of the city, I would start by cleaning and mowing a couple of strips on the side walk side. Then over a period make one or two more passes up the slope until I was up against the fence. In this way you will be able to study the area and correct any problems before you get into it with the mower.

I don't know what the ornamental grass is, but it looks like it might get larger than what the space calls for. If so, move it around the corner & enough away from the wall that it doesn't cause an issue. I would find a groundcover or shrub whose height is right or can be maintained right to go below the window. Place are mass of annuals near the stoop. The small tree would be better off the corner of building than in front of it. I would look at the large shrubs for possibilities of a small tree so that in the end, it didn't get too large, with low groundcover below it. A colorful perennial could wrap the building corner.