I am trying rebar with tops and will let you know how it turns out. I found several wooden tool handles for cheap at a garage sale, and have bought 2 ft rebar in size that fits snugly into the hole in the tool handle (which I painted a dark green). I have also considered buying old tools, old crowbars, etc but have not found cheap enough. The trick in my yard seems to be getting something I can sink deep enough---into the rocky clay layer beneath the good soil--so they won't bend over when hose drags--and still have enough height for hose which may ride up a bit--which is why I am trying the 2-ft rebar. I plan to use some epoxy, but am still afraid the "tops" will pop off the rebar if the hose rides up.

Very few remontant irises would work in cold zones. Even in zone 8 they are hit and miss: I cut them in bud stage and brought them inside when we got the first frost. Hardy Geraniums, late blooming bulbs, Japanese anemone, Abyssinian gladiolus (very fragrant!) -both requires plenty of water and I assume in your zone you have that in the fall; Muscari (dark, sky blue and white), veronica (my favorite is the icicle), there are a gazillion of salvia, among those one id a groundcover that evergreen and start blooming in winter and keep blooming till mid May here in zone 8 (check out the hardiness in your zone!). Astilbe, Bleeding heart, Campanula of various sorts, gas plant, and primrose family. Hellebores (if you have a not very wet spot)- it flowers in winter till mid May. Delphiniums, delphiniums and delphiniums - the perfect match for roses and outstanding in your climate. As far as I know they bloom a second time in fall there. Lupines!!! I wish I could have such wonderful lupines here! Larkspur, Poppies of all kinds, sweet peas, nasturtiums. And, of course, clematis in every color and style. The list is infinite in WA State but in zone 4 you have to check the hardiness. I am sure I left out a lot of plants. My feeling was when I visited WA, that there everything was possible to grow there. However, I visited the zone 8 coastal sections.

You probably need a whole bookcase of them - one shelf for china, one for silver, one for glassware ... etc.

Thanks for the further suggestions. There is a lot more sun on the right end. Lilies do well. I think delphiniums would be fine there. On the shady left, I just had to cut down an overhanging branch due to the trunk cracking in a heavy snow, that may make the left end more sunny than it has been before. Hopefully my gold hostas will not get fried. I’m thinking about a monkshood in the shadier end too. I think the path idea, though it appeals to me, will be dependent on whether I can get at least 2 of the bushes behind it dug out. Though I love the way it looks, I can’t keep frosted Brunnera alive. I was slowly getting some to expand in the backyard, but the lack of snow cover seems to have done them in too. They would be up by now if they were alive. A plain green one in another bed is up. One silvery plant that came to mind is pulmonaria. That does well in one bed around a tree (same location where the silver Brunnera croaked). I have one I got in trade (so don’t know that name) that is almost all silver, with just a fine green edge, rather than spotted. Since I have not done much planting around the gate location recently, I don’t know how the drainage compares to the adjacent hosta bed at the left, which is at the base of a very slight slope. Since I have a lot of gold and purple, the easy route would be to just use Hakonechloa macra 'Aureola’, since I already know I can grow that. Though where I have it now gets a lot of sun, conditions for both areas would be comparable. At least for now, I can’t extend the stepping stones. It will be a while before I can kneel well. It was a marathon of kneeling to prepare the base, paver base, etc., and lay the stones 2 years ago. The gate color I’m keeping. I matched the original paint, which a friend told me was a very traditional shade for garden fence in France where this came from. I have an outdoor metal/wood bench on the patio which I will paint to match. It also goes well with my house trim.