Great looking garden. I know this is a hosta site but tell me about the boulders... seems like you collect those too. What kind of snake is that?

Just stunningly beautiful. Now I know you didn't move that version of Precarious Rock with snow saucer. Do you have a crane in that garage?

Steve

Sure liked the organization of yor beds! Musta had a lot of thought and planning, impressed!

Beautiful gardens!

Love your garden. It rocks! Thanks for sharing!

Amazing gardens! I love the attention to detail. The boulders look great accenting the gardens

I love the boulder but it is crying for a tight ring of bright hosta planted around it! Beautiful iris garden. I love the fence around them.

Dave

Beautiful! Glad you like snakes in your garden too - they need friends. Bet it helps keep the slugs at bay! Anyhow, I had a question. I try to keep my hostas in the shade and obviously one tends to run out of shade after a while. It appears that your beautiful plants in many of the photos are in full son. What's the secret? Sun tolerance and lots of water? The sun at our elevation (4700') may be more intense or the fact that we live in a desert and require irrigation might be my problem too. Thanks for posting - it was truly inspirational! Ken

Gorgeous, fabulous gardens Don!
I too would like to know your secret for growing in full sun. I am in a similar climate to yours (southern Wisconsin) and have 2 areas that get full sun most of the day. My hostas just fry, even my sun tolerant varieties (Sun Power, Fragrant Bouquet, etc.) They are already brown & crispy and summer isn't even here yet! I give them plenty of water, especially when it's hot.
Wendy

What can I say that hasn't already been said! Very inspirational. Loved the snake. Wish I could get them to live in my yard.

It's about the SNAKE!!!!! Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwww.

Have you introduced Alligator Hide? Looks very interesting.

-Babka

Don, you have created an amazing garden. What a treasure it must be to enjoy this space! Thanks for sharing it with us. I just love the pergola and Iris garden.

Don: As well organized as a list and just as beautifully done. I really envy your Tokudama Aureonebulosa. Wanna trade? (lol)

My rocks in Rockansas never grew that big. Miracle-Gro for Rocks?

And how in the world do you check under those boulders for slugs?

Les

Beautiful gardens and some fantastic plants shown.
Cher

Very nice gardens! I do not dare to spend $100 for one hosta, but Don, moving that big rock from the Eastcoast must have cost you a lot more than that.
Don had written several posts here about how to move rocks, for example :
'Hauling Rocks on a Stone Boat, Sled, or Dolly' of 2009. But I can not find that article weith the GW Search
Bernd

You have a very beautiful yard and lots of really nice plants! The snake freaked me out a bit though!

Linda

My, that is so pretty!! Love your organization and the use of some really big rocks! We have a few granite boulders in the yard and I can tell you, it was loaded in the back of the truck, truck pulled to place where we wanted it and it practically took a wench to get them off the truck! But I do see a tractor with a front loader i the back of one of the pics. Still!! Love the smoothness of yours. Very, Very nice!!!

What everyone else said!

The snakes like to live under the boulders. I'm sure many of them stay under the boulders over the winter. They don't bother us...we have no poisonous ones here. We find them interesting to watch. The one in the pic is a Common Garter Snake (Thamnophis sirtalis).

Babka- The Gator Hide hosta is not yet introduced. I'm sure it will never be tc'ed, since there is not much of a market for green-leaved hostas unless they are extremely unique and attractive.

As far as growing hostas in full sun...it's not my preference, but I have a very limited amount of shade and they do okay if you give them a lot of water. There are a few benefits to growing them in a high amount of sunlight- they grow faster, they form tight clumps with lots of leaves, they don't collect much debris from the trees compared to growing them in a forest, there is very little root competition from trees, etc. The down side is that some cultivars burn and look bad by mid-summer...and the leaves aren't as large as those grown in shade. And they need watered more often than those which are growing in the shade.

Fabulous garden, Don. As for Gator Hide, I hope you will reconsider. That is certainly unique while beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I love it.

Steve

Absolutely beautiful garden!

I sometimes have garter snakes in my garden and they freak me right out. I can't help it....I could never in a million years live (or at least garden) in a place with poisonous or larger snakes (though that garter snake looks mighty big to me!) I was surprised once in my garden by one eating a toad and that was enough "nature" to last me a lifetime. Plus, I still have slugs!

Impressive effort and fantastic results!

Wow, Don, it's all so gorgeous. The plants, the layout, the boulders, the attention to detail...you are a workhorse. I don't remember you sharing an overview of your landscape before, and I'm glad to see it now. Keep it coming.

Thank you! Wonderful! I, too, wondered about the amount of sun. N

dint see any laying in the driveway . . . ;-)

Priceless...much much to be proud of... I love the snakes as well... I've always welcomed them around my property. They really do help with slugs and mice...
John

Very short driveway, and that safety orange cone by the boulder? Does that remind anyone backing out of the garage to be careful? :)

And Don, it was no less than what I expected to find in any garden you touched, or really any project you set yourself to accomplish. Great detail in the use of white to define the hardscape. Love the shape of that arbor, breaking away from always straight lines one comes to expect with wood structures.

Honestly, do you do all this work, including maintenance, yourself? Do you have hired help? How large is your garden anyway, to have all these well laid out non-cramped beds. Did you landscape it, because it is very professional looking.

And, I've lost my way to THE LISTS....where are they now? I know some were moved to Pieterje's site, or so I think, and I cannot find it. Looking for the THEME GARDENS specifically. Need to submit a few more. I now have the HOSTA FINDER to browse through, need to see your lists. Sorry if it is off topic a bit, but I was going to email you with this question, and here you post, so......excuse please? (but where is it)

Great Gardens! I have to admit that I too was a bit freaked by the snake as well as the Gator Hide, much too realistic for me. I have a great fear of both.

A while ago someone here admitted to "rock lust" because where she lives hasn't any. I think you re-kindled it again. : )

chris