Another View

This is a different view of the Hosta bed at the back fenceline of the property, taken from the East side, rather than the West. Unlike the previous photo two posts previous, this photo also includes many of the lower branches of the White Spruce trees that line the back fence, and gives a better idea of the appearance of the garden. It is also evident here the fact that quite a few of the Hostas are very mature, some having been in location for three or four years, wheras a number of others are in either their first or second season. All in all, I don't think this part of the garden looks half bad. If you are wondering, the white fluffy thing at the extreme left near the back is the back end of buddy the wonder poodle.

A Little Bit Of Work

I returned to work on the East side of the garden, which hasn't seen much attention recently. I had started a few years back building up compost, and introducing Day-Lilies against the fence line, and last year planted the Hostas in a staggered row. This year the area got completely overridden by weeds, so I spent a few hours and scraped all the weeds back, rearranged the Hostas and a few Karl Foerster reed grasses I had recently planted, then spread newspaper over all the soil, and placed a thin layer of compost mulch on top. It was amazing what three solid hours of work accomplished, as the area went from a total mess to at least some semblance of order! I am also in the process of installing a 'secret path' through most of the garden beds, and in this particular bed it will comprise log 'stepping stones' placed in a sinuous path. You can see the path in the middle of the photo, with buddy the wonder poodle hunting out his culinary delight - fresh dandelion root! To the right are the Hosta's, and further right the reed grass, and the Day Lilies. In the summer I will build the bed out to the left, probably with Astilbe and Huechera, for an added splash of colour.

The West Side Story

After the North side, the West side of a building probably gets the least amount of direct sun, usually limited to 1 PM and later in the afternoon. The problem with our West side is the fact that there are numerous trees to the South and West which limit direct sunlight to less than an hour, with the rest of the day being in deep shade or dappled shade. When we bought the house, there were three Junipers centred in front of the chimney, a couple of indeterminate dead shrubs, and two small Yews in front of each window, along with a few other plants. With the lack of sunlight, the original inhabitants here were getting quite spindly and pathetic, so three years ago I cut them all down and dug them out. The Rhododendron, the tall blue/green Hostas and the gold/green minis were planted two summers ago, while the new white Hostas went in this year. The small Japanese Maple (a shade loving tree if there ever was one) was originally planted in a part shade spot with full afternoon sun (sun from noon til 5) and was doing quite well, but I decided to relocate it here, as I have another tree planned for its original location. Another Rhododendron will be located in front of the other window, to balance the first. The grass between the garden bed and the driveway is patchy, and I am in the process of transplanting sod from other areas in the back yard to improve the area.