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Landscape Design Shrubs Perennials

help get me out of Hosta hell! suggestions needed!

8 months ago

Here is the South side of my house. It’s full of Hostas from the previous owner and as you can guess not the ideal spot for them! I’m in NW Illinois zone 5 and am looking for things to put in here. I’m a novice so I appreciate any replies. Perennials or evergreen preferably. TIA!

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Comments (11)

ViburnumValley central KY Bluegrass z6
8 months ago
Call....ken....and....find...out....what....trees....wipe....out....all...hateful....hostas....
laceyvail 6A, WV
8 months ago
For starters, I'd see if I could get rid of all those peculiar stone enclosures. All of them. From what we can see, they appear to be far too shallow front to back for the house plantings.
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but that leaf shows no damage from the bug that is on it ... does it???? except maybe some poop ... i do mind repeated questions .. that are the same as a post 3 down .. that is not cool ... if you arent keeping up.. why should i waste my time with giving the same answer over and over again ... and i hate the questions that are something like this" i want to propagate hosta.. please discuss the entire process from start to finish.. i mean really.. and while i am at it.. why dont i do your homework.. and carry you to school on my back.. and stay to spoon feed you lunch while i am at it ... you get stuck on something.. i will help.. but if you are too lazy to even do some basic research.. pshaw ... it would take me 2 months.. to clean my kitchen.. to be proud enough to show you a pick of it .. lol .. its very deep dark blue.. and it works.. because with the sliding door .... plus a window over the sink.. and south facing.. any other light color.. is nearly the Apocalypse .. you nearly needed a welding mask to go in there when the sun was out because its so bright ... ken
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Wow, tons of great ideas and different ways to go with this. I really appreciate you all brain storming this with me and your ideas. Please keep them coming! I think a long narrow table could work, but I think it would kind of make the space feel kind of tight. I'm a just touch claustrophobic, so if the space is tight, I'm apt not to use it. I know you're thinking well a booth can be a little 'squished' too, honestly I'd sit on chair side and leave the booth to the kids if we went that way. *LOL* Les, I really like the idea of a drop leaf table for the space, dropping one side and pushing against the short sink wall unless we needed the extra seating. I wonder how hard it would be to find a 8', possibly 9' long drop leaf type of harvest table like that. The island sounds great, especially from a serving point of view, but this will be our primary eating area so I'd like to have the option of a table I think. I like the small upper windows idea too, I'm going to bring that up with my DH. See what we did was flip flop part of the downstairs area to make the space work better for us. The kitchen and formal dining room were on the other side of the house. The thing is the dining room in this old house was built too tight to really comfortably accommodate more than a few people .. can you tell I don't like to feel crowded. *LOL* So it really wasn't a good use of space, the kitchen had too many door and window issues to have a good flow. Now on this side, this back eating area was chopped into two cramped rooms. One being a dark bathroom, the other just kind of a no mans land of wasted space back entry area .. this opened to the deck which made no sense. Where the kitchen we are building is, was dark bedroom, since that side of the house is North facing. So it made sense to open this area all to one space, put in the doors leading to the deck to let in natural light and make this a brighter, more useable space. The eating area is not ideal, but neither was the other arraignment and it was in the interior of the house, so cramped *and* dark. At least over here you can open the doors, people can be on the deck, people can be inside and you have an illusion of space. Now next on the hit list is taking the old kitchen and dining area and reworking that space into a master suite. At that point we actually have three rooms to open up. An old library that we'll be using for our sitting, office area, there is a double sided fireplace in the middle of that room and the dining room, so by opening on both sides of that it will open the spaces to each other, yet leave them intact as a different space. The dining area and part of the kitchen becomes a nice sized master bedroom, what's left of the kitchen our bathroom.
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What do you mean by "any other pieces in the range for the crackle tile - reliefs" The same crackle tile may come in various shape and sizes. "Subways" are a form of what's called field tile -- meaning they are used on the center of the design (usually 3 x6 or 4 x 8 but smaller or larger too). Most people just use those. But there are other types of pieces -- art teachers had little diamond shapes tiles and square tiles. There are relief tiles that have a raised designs in various shapes. Also, hexagonal and circles. Then there are finishing pieces for the top edge of a 'splash' which are skinny and rounded -- those were used to create the borders of art teachers guard. They can all match the field tile but give more options for designs though what's available varies by manufacturer. I was just suggesting to see if there were other types of pieces available in the cream crackle. Here's a range guard in a herringbone pattern done with subways run in two different patterns. Again, good size and makes the point about how the tile is used, though more traditional. I was suggesting art teacher's for the size of the medallion and the tone-on-tone textural design. Not for color or type of tile. Should have made that clear. But the tile from the Kraftmaid ad would certainly be a more modern option -- you have a good eye for the colors you need. It's very lovely and would tie in your floor. smarges (yes, costly if I recall) is a bit swirly though again very nice. What I think I see, though, is you going for a creamy look with glass mosaic that has some type of small accents. It's funny but I learned that what I pick over and over is what I want. May be difficult for you to see but you're being quite consistent. So maybe just focus on that look? Meanwhile, I remembered a dark mosaic glass GW kitchen with java cabinets. This is so you can see how darker tile would look -- it can help unifies the walls and the cabinets more than a lighter tile. I thought of this because the mosaics you originally posted were darker (also your nail polish).
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kitasei2
8 months ago
and paint the drainpipe to blend in with the house…
rosaprimula
8 months ago
Yes, it helps to have a clearer space to work from. Very hard to visualise with all the extraneous clutter. A spade is your friend here...and make some neighborhood offerings of unwanted hostas.
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
8 months ago
heresy.... crikey.. lol

seems to me.. youve been hanging around here for about 3 years.. how is it you are still calling yourself a novice???

can you step back and give us a whole view of the side fo the house..

i agree on the little bed knockouts.. make a uniform large bed if you want to garden out there.

and i seem to recall asking you numerous times.. how much time do you spend out there staring at the SIDE OF YOUR HOUSE...

i would probably go with some of the large flowering shrubs.. like lilac.. planted 5 to 8 feet out from the foundation... and hide that whole side of the house.. and the view into the backyard from the street.. but alas.. i cant tell from these pix.. if that would work ..

the tiny max 3 foot beds.. next to your 2 story house.. look dwarfish.. and nothing you plant i there.. will look to scale... go to scale.. or dont go at all... imo...

and how about showing us pix of all those old projects we helped you with over the years.. in a separate post i mean ...

ken
Illini Fan
Original Author
8 months ago
Yes I certainly owe you all some pics. You’ve been a big help along the way! With that being said, I’m. It interested in ripping the beds apart of expanding, etc. I know it limits what I can put in there
djacob Z6a SE WI
8 months ago
Huh…….??????

debra
Illini Fan
Original Author
8 months ago
Sorry. I’m NOT interested in removing all the landscaping bricks etc
Valinta
8 months ago
black-eyed susan, coneflowers in purple, red, orangr, butterfly weed, bee balm, hydrandea, peonies all leave lovely foliage after they bloom at various times in the season. Your local nursery - not big box store - can be a great help.
khan47
7 months ago
How much sun does that area receive? If it’s full sun, I’d go with a small panicle hydrangea (bobo, tiny quick fire etc) and some perennials like echinacea, salvia, nepeta. Salvia can really soften the edges of those rocks and gently trail over. I have some similar stonework and you can’t see it in midsummer with the salvias in full growth. You could also do some shrub arborvitae that’s small, like tater tot or Mr bowling ball.
Sigrid
7 months ago
Coneflowers are pretty come in anything from white to pink to yellow and oranges. You can get them tall and small. For evergreen, creeping phlox is good. I have some heaths that survive my Z5b winters, but you have to be careful.

I have a ton of hostas, too. I put them under trees where not much else grows.

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