Picture Day

Every day is picture day in my garden. At least once a day I wander around with my camera in hand. Mostly the dogs ignore my efforts, sometimes they find their way into the background of my garden pictures. I usually keep my eye out for that in an attempt to avoid butt and bathroom shots.

The other day, Judy's little lime hosta caught my eye while I had camera in hand. I didn't notice until I was looking at the images on my computer that it caught Maggie's attention to. Usually, if they are the close when I am taking pictures, the dogs are trying to knock me over. Apparently, she just wanted to see what was so interesting.

The Bird Sanctuary

The Bird Sanctuary is the area of my garden that is the sideyard we view out our dining room and kitchen windows. The sideyard is divided in half by a fence which separates the front sideyard from the back sideyard. Only the part of the sideyard that is in the front is the Bird Sanctuary.

It is full of trees that block all the sun. It is impossible to grow anything but woodland plants here and even some of them struggle. Every year, we talk about pruning to open up the sunlight just a little. Every year we cut some, nature breaks some and we pick up branches on a daily basis. None of it makes a difference to the lack of light.

There are two Spirea 'Snowmound' in here, a Ninebark and a sad, sad, lilac. The old light purple, highly scented variety of lilac which was, at one time, a very healthy shrub. This year it had about 20 flowers and 6 leaves. It struggles the most and if it is to be saved, we will need to help it this year. I am almost certain it will not make another.

The birds give me an excuse to let the whole place go a little wild and it always does. Plants find it difficult, weeds seem to love it. I still fight the good fight. Trying to find the plants that will live here. So far there are hosta and columbine. Siberian Iris 'Moonsilk' was here until this year. It never blooms. I moved it this year.

Despite all of this, I will never move the feeders and baths from this area. The birds love the tree cover. They all come in huge numbers providing hours of free entertainment and very occasionally, something rare will stop. Plants are here... but the birds are the focus.

Gotta Love Hosta

There's nothing for filling in all those gaps in the garden like hostas. They make such a nice backdrop for all the other plants, but at this time of year as they're starting to 'pop', they're at their best - before the slugs get them!

hosta 'First Frost'

unknown hosta (from Mom's garden)

My Favourite Hosta

 

I love hosta. All hosta. Never met one I didn't like. But if I was forced to pick a favourite, 'Sun Power' would be it. The lime leaf colour is outstanding and the leaves themselves are huge. It stands tall and has a very pretty flower. It is reliable, beautiful and sits in a prime location outside my dining room window where I can see it all the time.

Hostas in Dry Shade

Hostas work great in areas that are shady... under trees where not much else will thrive.  Even the less showy varieties add greenery where it's hard to get other things to grow.  This year we inherited several large hostas which were going to be dug up and thrown out by other gardeners.  What we have found though is that they don't really do well in the woods because it's so dry.  Here is what Kelly did to help keep moisture around the hostas in the woods:

So for a few days it looked rather odd in the woods with these sandy circles built up around all the hostas.  Then Kelly went and raked a bunch of mulch from the forest floor and hid the architecture:

Now it all looks more natural!  And I can tell the hostas like it too.

First Frost

Our first frost arrived this week. The early forecast was for -5 overnight but then updated to -2 later in the day. By our thermometer, we hit the -5 mark. Yet, when I left in the morning for the city, I took a quick look around and the garden looked great. When I got back home in the afternoon, I was greeted by this rhubarb and virginia creeper at the front door. About half the hosta were frosted off as well, including Sun Power.

It is supposed to warm up for a few weeks yet and today we had great gardening weather. The kind where you step outside and feel a tiny bit chilly but once you start digging, the chill goes away and it is perfect. Not too hot, not too cold, but just right. If we can get another week or two of that, my garden will be ready for the winter. Today it is not. I still have roses, iris and tulip to get in the ground. Tomorrow, however, is reserved for the chain-saw.

Garden Map - Bird Sanctuary, Fence side of path...

All areas of my garden have gone through big changes this year. Normally, I update my old maps of each area, marking what winter-killed and what was moved in or out. This year I had to draw new maps because marking the old would have made them unreadable and I like to keep the old maps legible so if anything comes up down the road that I don't expect, I can usually figure out what it is by checking what has been planted in that spot over the years. A good example of that is my new poppy in the Sun Garden. It is either 'Chocolate Ruffle' or 'Miss Piggy' because those were the only poppy planted there. However, both were planted there in 2009 and this is the first I am seeing of either. Just waiting for it to bloom now. Today I finshed moving and planting everything I had that was to go in the Bird Sanctuary on the fence side of the path. Once that was done, I turned the sprinkler on it and made a new map (above). This is a shade garden and includes my hosta garden. Although I have hosta strewn throughout the garden, this spot contains the largest part of my collection. I love hosta. Also here are wood violets, spirea 'Snowmound', solomon's seal, columbine in three varieties, phlox, lily-of-the-valley and lamium 'Herman's Pride' that I brought back from Linda's last year. The columbine patch was added today and the ostrich fern patch was moved from Judy's backyard this year as well. I have moved a few hosta around in this area this year and added hosta 'Carol' but the rest of the plants are all returning from last year. I will have to do an overlay for tulips and daffodils if I put any here but there are only one or two spots that get enough sun for them. I may not plant any here. I dug hosta 'Carol', 'Wolverine', bonus dark, 'Dream Weaver', 'Christmas Candy' and purple/yellow columbine to send to Linda today as well. It was a great day for gardening even if it was a little hot at +32!

Favourite Hosta Bloom

I want to add my favourite hosta bloom to Danielle's list.  This is a lancifolia hosta - the leaves are long and narrow.  It blooms much later than all the rest of my hosta - the only one with a few flowers left.  The blooms are purple instead of the more common lavender.
Hosta are excellent plants in my garden because I have lots of shady spots and they fill in quickly.

Hosta

Everyone knows the advantage of Hosta in the garden as a foliage plant or groundcover with most varieties hardy down to zone 2. The range of colours and variegation patterns seems endless. Less often do the flowers get noticed. In fact, I know gardeners that cut the flower stalks off rather than let them bloom. I don't think Hosta flowers are given their due. From the bicoloured bud of 'Captain Kirk' (above) that opens to a little white bell with a lavender stripe, to the more pendulous bells of 'Sun Power' in much darker lavender tones, they are almost as varied as the foliage. Some varieties have their flowers all bunched at the top of the stalk like 'Halcyon' with is blue toned buds and others have their flowers spaced out along the stalk like 'June' with her dainty, pale buds that open to almost white flowers. Hosta is easy to grow, requiring minimal care. As long as it is planted in the right spot, it will generally get bigger and bigger until it outgrows the space and needs division. Dividing Hosta is also an easy task since it is very forgiving of the process. The key, in my garden, does seem to be finding the right spot where it will thrive rather than simply survive. Hosta are good at surviving. When deciding on where to plant any new Hosta, a rule of thumb is that the bluer the leaf, the more shade it needs and the lighter the leaf, the more sun it can take. In fact, 'Blue Cadet' will turn green in sun, despite its' name. There are exceptions to this rule such as 'Blue Mouse Ears' which likes a lot of sun so always read the tag. But if you are like me and find yourself often without tags, the rule of thumb will come in handy. Additionally, blue leaf hosta are said to be more slug resistant than their light leaf cousins. Despite their over-use in the building landscape arena, I highly recommend Hosta as an addition to every garden. Their reliability can always be counted on.