three Hosta Gardens - Garden 3
Garden 3 is My Garden
Faye and I live probably less than ½ mile apart on the same hill. Both of our acreages face west and look over Shuswap Lake. In spite of that there are a lot of differences in our gardening conditions. Her property is open and has fairly flat fields. They grow hay and graze donkeys. They have a huge lawn (ever shrinking). Their large trees are a Willow and Silver Cottonwood. Her soil is clay. Mine is more sloped with rocks and very large Cedar and Fir trees right up to the house on one side. There’s a huge Walnut on the other. Our soil is sandy which means daily watering in hot weather. My lawn is very tiny and also shrinking. Pretty soon I’ll be lucky if I can fit a chair on it.
My challenges are the same as many of you with slugs, voles, cut worm and tree roots. My gardening style is pretty much make it up as you go along and learn by your mistakes. I see it as a painting and am always moving things around. I have lived here for 23 years and started with a typical perennial garden- It was English cottage style with a picket fence and lots of flowers. As the trees grew and I began to appreciate foliage it changed to being more and more hostas. I fit them in between the surviving perennials and bushes. I never have enough room and tend to always plant too close together knowing I’ll have to ‘fix’ it someday. That’s ok with me since the gardens always look full which I prefer.
As the space has become an issue I really try to plant ‘up’. There are many levels to the garden and if two things get too crowed I lift one up higher with rocks, wood, whatever.
My biggest garden advantage beside automatic watering (essential) is probably the variety of places I can plant. They all have their own personality and most have a place to sit and enjoy them. The lawn, the driveway, the courtyard, the balcony, the woods the pool each is different but all have hostas. I'm am going to try to show picture of each. Most of the pictures are from this year with the exception of the Balcony and Pool. I'm still working there and haven't taken many.
This is the first year I have added very few plants. I’m trying to deal with what I have for now. As old age fast approaches I need to get this easier!
I have added a new rockery for mini’s and re-worked some older places. It is really a labor of love.
Hope you like the pictures,
Myrle
Comments (30)
leafwatcher
10 years agolast modified: 9 years ago
Gesila
10 years agolast modified: 9 years agoRelated Discussions
Three sisters garden
Comments (26)It's not an actual drainfield if that's what you mean... we apparently have a holding tank or an overflow tank above the actual septic tank and that was where I was thinking. It leaks or overflows or something to send more nutrients downslope. All I know is there is no drainfield there, but the grass grows faster than everywhere else in the yard. Or is the septic runoff itself the problem? I can search the forum tomorrow when I have more time... just wondering what the issues are. So, am I reading correctly that if I plant two types together, this season's corn may not develop true to type? The sweet corn (golden bantam) is 83 days and the popcorn (SA yellow) is 105-115 days. Does this mean the sweet corn is likely to pollinate earlier than the popcorn? Would it be reasonable to stagger the planting more to make sure the popcorn pollinates later? My growing season is 170 days, so I should have time, right? I am doing some SFG, but not entirely... I give my tomatoes a little more room, I give my broccoli and cauliflower more room, etc. Beans and peas are easier to set up in a long row for trellising, so that's what I do. I don't try to squeeze my zucchini into a square foot, but I do stake them (makes dealing with powdery leaf mildew much easier), so they don't take up nearly as much room as they would if I just let them grow on the ground. Basically, if it works well in a SFG set up, I'll do it... otherwise, I do what works best for the plant - but I don't have a large plot set up for rows. I'm mostly working in my expanded front flower beds, former weed beds along the sides of the house, and this year expanding into my hilly back yard (for large things that don't work in a SFG). Slopes? We live outside of Pittsburgh, so flat ground is an uncommon find. We have steep slopes and slight slopes, I have no idea of actual % grade. Good for sledding, not great for teaching a young child to ride a bike, lol....See MoreWhat I did in my garden This week 3/16-3/22
Comments (38)We are pushing the limits of good sense here in north Texas planting out our tomato transplants last Sunday. (Surely these plants will be 'blessed' because we put them in on Sunday????) They certainly enjoyed the multi-inch rain on Tuesday and the mild temps since. One of our first projects was to re-do the small water feature near the back porch. The old one developed a leak and had to be replaced. The new container is in and the fountain is splashing merrily. It needs the rocks fussed with and fresh mulch, but it sounds and looks good. We've scraped up the old mulch path in the white garden....ummmmmmm good mulch. And replaced with fresh pine bark nuggets. The swing in that garden got stripped and repainted as well. Today I put in a few white petunias and the area looks so good. We sprayed our home-made bunny-be-gone on some potential munchies....now the new growth on the daylilies will last longer than a day. Every time I go outside I want to take photos of the red tulips in the front yard. I've already taken photos, but the flowers are so bright and fresh, I want to take more. LOL See the tulips on my blog, linked below. Happy spring everyone! Here is a link that might be useful: Creative Soul...See MoreThree Hosta Gardens - Garden 1
Comments (17)Thank you all for your kind comments. I feel lucky to be some part of all three gardens. gogirlterri - so... you spotted Judy, Faye and I dancing under Wheee. Ha!! I do feel like those little pigs when I'm in the garden. As far as having help goes, yes we do all have a little help. Judy has some from me at least once a year. Her husband is not interested in the garden but will occasionally agree to jobs if they are clearly outlined and done in order. He want's a list to work by which is hard to do when you tend to wander around in a daze most of the time. Faye's hubby is very willing and has assets like a working truck, friends with manure and tractor/backhoe things. Would that be nice! He's a very kind, generous man and often comes up here with his equipment to help Mike (my hubby) with jobs. We are sadly lacking in any useful equipment other than buckets and wheelbarrows. Faye does most of the hard work herself, removing lawn, all planting, watering etc. Mike is also not a gardener but a very happy builder. He has added decks, build the wall when we took down the picket fence (I did the finishing) build wooden planting areas and even helped with the occasional rock. He always has many projects on the go in various stages of completion. It all helps. Mocc, Judy is always adding mirrors. She brightens up all her shady corners with them. She brought the red sunburst one back from here last year. She got me to put up a few in my garden last summer. My problem is they get dirty so fast with our hard water....See MoreSan Antonio Botanical Gardens Spring Break Plant Sale 3/14 to 3/18/16
Comments (9)Ooooh, that's pretty! (I had to google it but I saw all the images with hummers in the pics.) I wonder if it's available anywhere else locally? The ladies at the sale site were so helpful and even brought around a wagon for me to fill up. Of course, I couldn't because DH was with me and he reminded me that we were with friends. They sat and had tea and dessert after our walk through the gardens and I ran over to give a quick look at the sale. I bought one other plant, brought it home, and promptly lost the tag. I probably buried it in the ground... bummer!...See More
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