Babka, what a nice teahouse/atrium you have there. You can also buy bubblewrap in sheets/rolls that gives good insulation and lets light through too. I used to winterize my screened in carport on two walls with the bubble wrap sheets, and kept a lot of parrots out there, and plants, all winter.

It is helpful to see the size of the pots you keep your hosta in. I have some of the square thingies but made the mistake of NESTING them, and now cannot separate one from another. I recently purchased two whiskey barrel halves, smelling delightfully of Jack Daniels, feeling it would take such a size for the Sum & Substance. (Which incidentally, now has a long fat eye 2" high sticking out of its 5 gallon bucket)--so it will be needing that barrel very soon.

I note you have that spider plant in a hanging basket. You might wish to try some holly fern too, very stout stuff. And asparagus (sprengerii?) would not have to be brought inside, just left out in a big pot.

One thing you might do for wintertime, and perhaps all year as well, is create a wooden shelf like they put in garages over the hood of a car, having the 2x4s suspended from the overhead around the perimeter of your space. Or, hefty brackets attached to your vertical studs with something like a 2 x 12 wide board as a shelf. Or, the wire closet shelving--water the top pots, it drip into the bottom ones.

Compared to many of my neighbors here, we have a small lot. A friend of mine has 200' wide x 600+ deep. The neighbor who sold me her 25' deep x 100' wide piece we call the "back forty" still has 300' depth I'm thinking. I've noticed that whatever space I have to garden, I will keep going until I fill it up--one way or another.

LOVELY....it looks to have a great feeling of calm about it

Bubble wrap? No way would I want to insulate this place. The whole goal, in this climate, is to keep them in a cool/darkened place. That tarp has is silver on one side to reflect the Winter sun. It rains here in Winter and I don't want the rain to get into the pots. I vary what is in the hanging pots from year to year and we have many choices here. Asparagus ferns are often used as ground cover. They will break a clay pot if you leave them for a couple years. I have them elsewhere where I don't have to water much.

This whole area is right off our master bathroom (not like a storage shed) and since I go out there a lot, I wouldn't want to put much else in there. It once housed a sunken redwood hot tub. Here's a photo looking the other way, as well as some outside shots.

My lot is only 75x125' with a 2,000 sq. ft. house in the middle. Not much room to spread out. I have about 80+ hosta varieties and when I get more, some others will have to go. ;-(

-Babka

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This is a very nice landscape, japanese? I like that wide dry creek bed. I just made one much less enjoyable myself. You should show more photos of the landscape.

My lot is not much bigger than yours, 105x150, with a 2-story 2500 sqft house sitting in it, and I have 300 hostas (170 different) and 62 different smaller conifers on it. But your temperatures are so much warmer than mine in zone 5, and you need that cool shade, which trees alone can not provide.

Thanks for showing!
Bernd

Absolutely beautiful! Rob

Babka, you ain't the only one running out of room....

This is our backyard a few days ago. I have a good many pots with divisions of all kind that I grow to sell. It'll look quite a bit different come mid-May....

Pieter

Pieter! I LOVE it! I wish I could sell mine when I divide them, but no one knows about hostas around. Please, show us a photo come mid May.

-Babka

Babka, I sometimes forget myself, like my little granddaughter said once, "I lose my mind." Which was her way of apologizing. For my purposes then, keeping out the cold was the objective. I suppose that is why I have such confusion in how to grow hosta properly in a warmer climate.
Brrrrrrrrrr, go take a cold shower, what was I thinking!!!

Your Japanese maples and conifers and the asian style of your grounds and home architecture are beautifully done. I can see why you have to edit your plants so carefully. It seems to go with your philosophy too. Wish I could be as precise and disciplined.

Moccasinlanding - No apologizing needed here. You don't know my growing conditions and I can only imagine yours. I came from Chicago to here back in 1976 and it is a totally different set of rules. You came from MA to AL so you understand the gardening dilemma. Our landscaping is very Japanese, as is our interior decor from years of travel in Asia. Solicitors who stop by expect to see an Asian appear at the door...tah dah...I'm a Polish gramma. OBTW, why are you up so late? It is only evening here.

-Babka

Very nice landscape. Especially the bit of niwaki on the left of you first pic.

tj

Babka, while it isn't May 2012 yet, this was 15 May 2011, from a different angle....

And just for fun, from a slightly different angle, we're now in July '11

Pieter

And.... here we are mid June '11..

Pieter

Pieter,

I see you let the guard dogs out at night. That'll keep the deer and bunnies away. What are you using for that conifer screen? Those aren't Green Giants are they?

Steve

Very nice gardens both of you. I admire your restraint. I doubt under the same circumstances the 'non-hosta' plants would survive me replacing them. Myrle

Steve, we ain't got no deer 'round here, and feral bunnies ceased to be an issue a few years ago - and NOT on account of our canines! BTW, our two LOVE to eat grass..... don't know why we bother with dogfood some times....

The cedars are 'Smaragd'

Pieter

Very nice Babka. I love the trees you chose to frame out your home and gardens. Sets everything off beautifully. Lot of work you put in those Hosta to keep them going and looking so lovely.
Cher

Hello,

Just joined and having a great time reading all the posts and seeing the pictures others have submitted in various forums. I'm a fellow hosta addict with currently almost 150 different hostas. I do have them planted in gardens but will in time have no room however I will say that no matter how many plants I've had over the years I've always found room for just one more hosta and other groups which I collect. There are just to many I want. Need to win the lottery.

John

Welcome John,
I to am an addict, having almost 400 different hostas. I also am running out space not because of my yard being to small but because my shade is morning shade and my gardens are on the edge of the woods.
Some afternoon sun wants to lighten up my gardens a little bit to much for some of my hostas, I do have trees growing but not fast enough.
Enjoy the forum!
Gary

Babka,I love the Japanese style of gardening you have there,but for me,it wouldn't be practical. There are so many leaves in my woodland garden,that I'd be raking leaves all year,just to make it presentable. Still,I am not giving up my hostas. I'm a former Floridian,and believe me,hostas would never grow where I lived down in southwestern Fla. You could grow them as an annual,but then you'd have to buy them again! They weren't offered in any nurseries,or big box stores. On the other hand,Lowes here sells palm trees and Bougainvillea,and they won't grow here,unless you want to haul them inside every winter. Keep up the nice gardens! Phil

I will also have a challenge with providing adequate shade from the extended heat and sun in south Alabama. Look at the road atlas, where I-65 ends it intersects with I-10, and we live about 2 miles south of I-10. Between a river and Mobile Bay, but with the highest elevation in my neighborhood, which is 22 feet above sea level. Yeah, some neighbors have only 3 feet shown on Google Earth.

This info prefaces what I am considering for later this summer. I have a 100' roll of 90% shade cloth, about 6 foot wide, purchased from Home Depot. I'm considering hanging it like a tent draped across a rope between two pecan trees in my new "back forty" shade space. That space is about as shady as it gets until the sun goes down below the roofline or the tall pine trees of my neighbor across the street. I know hosta are supposed to be SHADE TOLERANT, and get SOME SUN, but I don't want them to totally incinerate!
If I get it strung up, the corners will be attached to fence posts 7-8 feet up in the air, and the rope hung at least 12 feet up. I figure it might use up to 75 feet of my 100 foot roll. Hopefully it will endure ONE season anyway.

Babka, I've always liked the Japanese gardening style. Also, the architectural style. Sadly, so much of Japan is crowded now and there is not enough space to indulge in the classic design such as your home. My favorite Japanese feature is the tonsu chest. A chest which is a step-chest.
Such an object is dear to the heart of a mariner, because it wastes NO SPACE, serves more than one purpose.

Thinking about plant selection for Japanese style gardens, I realize they have many plants which have no period of defoliation. Camellias, azaleas, bamboo, conifers, little loss of leaf. And I think the J. maples tend to drop and get it over with, quite neatly, rake it up and be done with it. But that is another forum's discussion. Except where hostas fit into the landscape.

Hmmm, forgot to mention what I started out to say. They sell shade sails which can create more shade if that is your problem. Like, a sail across the driveway can keep potted hosta happy there, while also covering your parking space. Such posts for high tension sails must be very sturdy, but they look pretty good.

Babka, How far north are you in California. Are you in the State of Jefferson ? Rob

Any well planned garden is a beautiful thing, especially if it contains a generous allotment of hostas! The huge well tended properties that we are treated to visit here on the forum are surely works of art. But I am always impressed and inspired by what people with limited space manage to achieve in their pursuit of hosta heaven. UKHostaman has one of my very favourite gardens -- a tiny perfect space. I know he would love to have a "north American" yard, but I have tons of neighbours for whom that space is just an unwelcome chore. Just sayin....
Jan

Rob-

I live in a suburb 50 miles south of San Francisco, about the same latitude as southern Illinois. I grow hostas here, but in the state of 'Jefferson' they grow marijuana. Hostas don't do well in the ground here, rare frosts and no freezes, and most of the landscaping stays green all year, like azaleas, camellias, liriopes, vinca minor, thyme, mondo grass, jade and citrus. No one wants to look at bare ground in Winter.

-Babka

There is it again : Hostas are shade tolerant, that means love sun.
That seems to apply only to zones 4 and 5, certainly not to zones 8 and 9. Even in my zone 5 when there is a week of 95 dgrs, they can ONLY exist because I provide them with supplemental watering. They love shade then. In the wild supposedly they live in coastal Asia with sufficient rain. But in my zone 5 outside wet areas they would not exist in sun in the wild.
Bernd