WOW fabulous very nice yard im jealous!!

Wayne,you make me want to torch my garden!.Actually we have very different gardens. Mine is woodland,so there is not a comparison,exactly. Also,I garden on the side of a small mountain,so planting is a whole nother experience. Great gardens,though!! Phil

Gorgeous hosta specimens and companion plants and shrubs. Love the variety in textures.

You posted too many pics in one post for me to keep straight, and they ALL deserve comment!

I especially like your fabulous GE and Ice Age Trail.

My Summer Music is still so tiny after 2 years in the ground that I moved it to my new mini garden. Looks like a mini, so it can hang out with the other itty bitties (although most are bigger than SM).

Phil, don't talk like that! There is no comparison. I would love to be in your woodland setting which is so gorgeous. We are doing the best we can with a mature city lot where you can hear everything going on with all the neighbours which is a significant downside ... not to mention the neighbours' maples and oaks that drop so much debris in our yard!

Thank you Bunnycat! Good point you make ... I did post too many to keep track of. Wayne

Very nice garden pictures. I use a similar mulch in our yard and it does seem to hold the moisture in very nicely and certainly the weeds are greatly diminished.

Wonderful gardens, Wayne. I can't wait until some of my hostas are as big as yours.

Wayne, you are an inspiration. Fabulous gardens, full of creative imagination. Thanks so much for sharing.

Steve

Lovely garden and splendid hostas. They are obviously part of your family and you love them and know them by name.
Thank you for posting

Wow that was fun! I loved the tour, loved your plants and settings, loved the neetness and room you've allowed between them. I got a kick out of the pot in the first picture that looks balanced on some spiky thing. That's someting I'd do. I loved the gecko decoration and the thing that looks like a birdbath with metal leaves attached? Several plants have been added to the must have list (Gypsy Rose & Popcorn). I even like Ice Age Trail which I think is a first for me. I don't think any picture of it that I've seen before looked so appealing.

Thanks for taking us on a tour. It's a great idea. McT

Beautiful.... thank you for sharing!

Wayne you have fabulous gardens. I want to know how you got your GE to grow that way. And your Guardian Angel is to die for. They're all beautiful as well as your ferns, peonies, and heuchera. Oh yes, and the Japanese grasses. All exactly the same plants I love in mine, though I must throw in a few campanula and epimedium.

Gorgeous, you deserve a blue ribbon.

Lainey

Wayne--thank you, so much, for the stroll through your wonderful gardens!! You have made some wonderful choices
in hosta, for sure, and they seem VERY HAPPY in your care!!

G.E.---sigh!! How I hope I can make the special one sent me look as good as yours one day!!!

I enjoyed looking at your pics. very much--thank you!!!!

Janice

Lovely,just lovely.
Thank you for sharing your gardens.

Awesome, just awesome!

WOW! That's the first time I've seen a Great Expectations that is actually great! Guardian Angel just went on my list after seeing yours. What is the big yellow in the middle of photo # 5 and 6 with the copper light hanging ove it?

Thank you all for looking and enjoying and commenting!

Credits: Most of the credit for what you see goes to my Lovely Lady (LL)who worked very hard on all this for about 5 years before I showed up a few years ago.

McT you really did look very carefully to pick out many of the details. I didn't even realize you could see the Gecko!

Birdnesthead, that guy would be Jimmy Crack Corn ... love it!

Great Expectations: There have been many discussions, theories and beautiful pic's of GE in this forum which you can check out using the search function. The big trick appears to be getting a good plant and try to drown them.

Here are some more GE pic's from the gallery page 3:
http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/hosta/hpgal0212191123059.html?17

Here is a link that might be useful: GE Discussion

OK,Wayne,how do make your Japanese maple survive up there when they all froze last year down here? I know people who lost Japanese maples last year,and a lot of once beautiful ones in the area,are so badly burned,they may never look good! I lost a small one,and my best one is only a shadow of his former self. I mean,don't you live in the great white north? It isn't fair! Just curious. Phil

Love those pics!!! I especially love them because of all the other plants interspersed with hosta.

QUESTION: On the last photo...the Jap Fern...is that 1 plant that's just huge? Or is that a couple plants put close to each other to look bigger? I LOVE IT whatever your answer is.

Gayle

Magnificent!!! I can only hope my gardens look so good in 5 years. Thanks for sharing!

I'm moving to Ontario.

Westy

Hey Phil, we have six Japanese Maples and they are doing great. Lots of people have them up here. They must know there is a long cold winter coming and they take dormancy seriously. They do need some protection from freezing winds so ours are close to the house or cedars or a big spruce and that seems to work. Biggest problem is the stinkin' rabbits that chew on them in the winter.

Gayle, that's one plant ... I have no idea why our Jap Painted Ferns get so big other than they get a lot of water twice a week with the hostas! LL digs up little one leafed babies, puts them in a pot and in two years they go in the garden and explode! Wayne