HI Erin! Welcome to the wonderful fun of gardening and also, bless you in your new home! Where are you located? Are you thinking of only planting hostas or are you thinking of having a few other plants in there with them? Some contrast and especially color when the hostas are not blooming makes everything look really nice. Hostas are quite happy to have friends among them. My lot is .1 acre and that includes the house. So I do not not get hundreds of hostas or anything else (except slugs). It is pretty shady from my neighbors' trees though the bed in front of the house is in full sun. That is where daylilies and irises go. But I do have at least 25 cultivars of hostas and am planning some more. The advantage to a small garden is you have to plan what you put in it -- or else be prepared to pull out things to give away so you can make room for new acquisitions. And divisions from your older plants! The fun is, you don't get everything at once that you will ever have. Wait a while and put things in a few at a time (annuals will do to fill in places) and then you can have the pleasure of learning about new species and cultivars and acquiring them as the years go by. You will get different plants, hostas or otherwise, from various sources and they will always remind you of the person who gave it to you, swapped with you, or the trip you took when you bought one or another plant(s). I like to have some color spotted here & there so I use impatiens (I can hear the perennial people groaning) and I also have some Heron's Pirouette perennial begonias---these get about 2.5-3" tall when they bloom and have long lasting scapes ( flower stalks), arching gracefully --- here, from Aug till frost. In May, there is old fashioned bleeding heart -- both white and pink/white. These die back in the heat of summer so the hostas, which are getting big, fill in the bare spots the bleeding hearts left. I have a few liriope here & there because they are OK with dry shade & tree roots, and they are not boring if you only use a couple. You can get them with several shades of variegated foliage, and white or medium or dark blue flowers. And they bloom in very late summer/fall when not much else does, in the shady garden. I live in NJ overlooking the Delaware R just north of Trenton. I use astilbe, too--from white to pink to deep red frothy flowers in late spring and early summer. They are also beautiful with the hostas. Right now there are crocuses that have just opened yesterday (when it was sunny) and there will be squills and grape hyacinths, and daffodils are in the sunnier spots. I don't bother with tulips---though I love them, they are an expensive way to feed deer. I have lily of valley under the Norway spruce tree (which has had its lower branches removed to give sun to the bed under it) this is a rather dry shade bed---however the trunk of the spruce is ringed with Gold Standard hostas that are quite happy. The bed gets compost thrown over it every spring and it has sweet woodruff in there along with the hostas, and little spring bulbs such as crocuses & squills, and bigger ones ie English bluebells. Lily of the valley would like to take over the world, but there is easy way to stop it---dig some out. After it blooms, so you can have the wonderful flowers! I try to always have something blooming somewhere in the yard. It does not have to be a lot, just a bit--some white or pink flowered thing next to a dark leaved hosta brightens the corner. I have scilla Hispanica which is "wood hyacinths" -- you can get them in pink, white or blue, and they are very shade tolerant. They will bloom in May (here) and do very well next to hostas too. When the hosta leaves get bigger, the scilla is dying back for the summer. In our yard we have red shale which breaks down to clay in some parts, and what the locals call "the brown sand" in the other areas. In one little lot! Some kind of interesting geology was going on here a long time ago! We now have dark black soil over both, after years of digging in manure, leaves, & compost. You can ameliorate clay quite a lot with gypsum. We dig our yard's leaves right into our beds, around the plants, in fall. When we make a new bed, which we did a lot of after we got the new septic system, we take three years to do this digging, instead of planting things right away. The soil in those beds is wonderful. We also have a compost bin in the back corner---this is not rocket science and do not let compost hobbyists scare you! All you have to do is make a circle a yard or more across with sturdy wire, and throw in the leaves, weeds, and the non-meat kitchen scraps. Also grass clippings if you do not put weed killer and poisons on the lawn. Kitchen stuff meaning plant material such as peels, rinds, stems, leftover salad or other veggies that waited too long in the fridge to be eaten, and cut up toilet paper rollers. Turn it twice a year and when you turn it, take the well-composted stuff out & use it in your garden. When the ground is warm in summer, we just take the kitchen compost bowl out & dig the stuff right into the garden next to the plants. It breaks down very quickly in summer and the nutrition goes right into the plants. You said you have children---by all means, set aside a place for their own garden! Especially if you can make it in a sunny area. Let them plant veggies (then they will eat them) and make it easy ones such as lettuce and beans. You can grow beans as a little tent to save space. Or you can make a taller "tepee" with poles and leave an opening for the kids to crawl in under the beans. You can take a potato from the farmer's market (the organic stand; it won't have been sprayed with anti-sprouting stuff) and cut it up so the pieces have eyes. Just stick them in the ground a few feet apart. Then the kids can have their own potato plants. Well, you have heard enough from me! Once again, welcome to years & years of great fun!

OK, Haley said it well. Get dressed. If you don't have the money to move, will you have the money to pay for the damage? What about having money to move if you're evicted? If other neighbors smell it coming from your place they'll complain about you. If you don't report defects in the apartment IMMEDIATELY, most leases will hold YOU responsible for it. Nobody's mentioned this that I've seen. I had a big hassle at my very first apartment. I told my roommate that we should go around and document every hole in the wall and everything that doesn't work and give it to the manager. Well, it didn't get done and what happened at moving time? "You didn't fill out a 'pink slip' so you're responsible for all defects." I was irate. I never received a "pink slip" and demanded that she prove she gave us one. She couldn't of course but it was a battle and essentially we compromised on the damages. My next apartment I knew to report the broken thermostat, and they tried to charge me for it (it was on a hot water system and quite expensive). I'm guessing because it was sticking out from the baseboard heat unit and probably broke from soeone tripping or moving furniture, but all I know is I wasn't about to pay for it. You need to report this and no apologies. Simply state facts. At this point you need to cover your butt for non-action in the past, so your statement needs to be that this has been there since you moved in. You tried things to mitigate the problem but it's still there. It seems to come from this wall, etc. You don't have to be confrontational. And it's best you not be, but you *do* need to be assertive and proactive. Otherwise, start putting aside some cash because you'll wind up with a pretty good bill to pay. Normally, I might suggest dealing with the neighbor, but especially now, you need to deal with the landlord/management. That goes without saying. And if the neighbor harasses you, then call the police. Again, you are the one who has to stand up for yourself. Your neighbor will not do it and your landlord/manager can't and won't do anything if they don't know there's a problem. They don't carry a crystal ball in their briefcase. I guess you don't *have* to speak for yourself. You could hire a lawyer or other representative to speak on your behalf, but that will be an expense too. And I doubt they'll be too conducive to working with you should you hire someone. A similar situation: I have a friend who went through eviction because of his dog and the smell. Neighbors complained, he says it was the neighbor's apartment. The one time I was there, I didn't smell anything but it could be an issue, especially knowing the dog he had. You need to realize that your having a cat is going to complicate things. Sad but true. And if you choose to procrastinate, there's a very, very good chance it's going to cost you, whether eviction (and in many places that can count against you to try to rent elsewhere - it does around here!) or being charged for damage. Moving is often a dreaded experience but if you could, I would. I just have a bad feeling that this is going to be a bad outcome. But if you're set on staying then stand up for yourself or you can expect to face the consequences. There's an old saying, every action has a reaction. Keep in mind that inaction is also a form of action. Calling authorities should be a last resort. That can often get you into trouble with the landlord. They don't like people going over their heads. I fully understand your hesitance to do something. Most of us would just like to be able to live and let live. But there's times when you're not given a lot of good choices so you have to decide what you're going to do, and/or NOT do and see what happens then. Good luck. Give your furry friend a scratch under the chin for me and pet him/her a bit. It can be very calming in stressful times.

Bob Wow!!!! I would run someone over for trees like yours lol I bet that lasts you the whole year! wished I lived in your area to see those amazing fruits :) mike I’m glad you’re safe and still getting pay! I know a lot of my relatives and friends who cannot make their mortgage payments and the wait time calling the bank to defer the payments is hours! I feel so terrible and yet there’s not much many of us can do in situations like these. My nurse friend told me that every time I go out when I come back in to strip to my undies and put all my clothes in the washer and go straight to the shower since I also live with my elderly mother. I’m very glad to hear of your safe family and mom :) Lol mike I love it so far the staying home except I’m driving everyone in my house nuts as I keep cleaning up after them and following my pets around with a broom lol I’m glad it’s sunny today we are forecasted to have two weeks of rain then what will I do lol! I have just tried my hand at grafting mike I’m so excited!! :) I cut myself several times I’m so clumsy and the whole thing took me hours lol oh well I guess we’ll see in three weeks :) I too am worried about Brian and family I truly hope he’s just been busy with his citrus. Take care my friend lots of hugs to you! :)

Hi everybody! When I got to the doctor, I was told I didn't "qualify" for a test because I have no fever. We can't get antibody tests here. We can't get anything if we don't have a fever or have been out of the country, or we've been previously diagnosed with COVID-19. Isn't that ridiculous? In the wealthier communities, like Naples and The Villages, they had drive-thru testing, but not here in Gainesville. I did get a chest x-ray, and my doctor said I have some congestion, but he doesn't see the typical COVID damage, so that's good. He says he'll put me on the list for antibody testing, and I can have one as soon as he gets enough. Anyway, I'm fine now. I've been taking loads of vitamins and supplements and my energy is back. I've been gardening a lot, really literally tearing things up. I'm getting rid of a lot of ornamentals in favor of trying to grow more food. I really want to see just how much food I can produce in my tiny space. Joe, here's how those free tests go: They take your temperature. If you have no temperature, they pretty much write it off as allergies and send you home. If you do have a temperature, they test you for flu. If it's not flu, they test you for something else, then if it's not that, they test you for COVID. It's insane. I went out grocery shopping for the first time in weeks today. I tend to go shopping about every 2 weeks, then self-quarantining after just in case. This was the first time I wore a mask, and it was a homemade paper towel mask I saw a doctor making on YouTube. 5 layers, so pretty safe -- for everyone else. I can't find any other kind of mask anywhere, and I'm not paying the prices they have on eBay and Amazon for a 50-cent mask. I did find latrile gloves in the cleaning department at Dollar General. I remember when they were 10 prs/$1, now it's 4 prs/$1.50. Price gouging at its finest. When my husband was doing house renovations, the n-95 masks for $20.00/100. That was a long time ago, sure, but now they're $30.00+ for 20 from Grainger, but they're perpetually out and aren't taking orders. This is a strange time we're living in. They tell us to wear masks, then the government buys them all up and we can't find them. I'm going to be forced to start cutting up old clothes soon to make my own. Worst part is, I can't get filters for my vacuum, which uses -- you guessed it -- HEPA filters. So construction people can't get masks and we can't vacuum our homes. Wonderful. I've gotta get out of this place.