When you get a ravine, possibly there would be also a creek, perhaps only noticeable after a rain. That would be certainly hosta heaven!

good luck

i hope you took your shovel with you.. and dug a hole ... to find out what the soil was ...

and.. watering on a hill.. is an art .. that you will have to learn ...

ken

Good luck with your offer, Paula! That sounds like a wonderful place to grow hostas :)

Got everything crossed for you! Woohoo - that will indeed be hosta heaven! Good luck! :-)

Good luck!

bk

Lovely to have so much real estate devoted to HOSTA. Cannot wait to hear your offer was chosen.

We didn't get the house :(
It wasn't meant to be. Thank-you to all of you that were keeping your fingers crossed; maybe next time. Real estate here is soooo expensive, it is difficult to find a decent lot with a good house; it is usually one or the other ,in our price range.

Sorry to hear, Paula. I just saw a story on the news this evening about how tons of people are suddenly paying cash for real estate and how difficult it is to find a home these days. I can't even imagine having enough money go purchase a home outright. I hope you find the right home soon.

I can't imagine that either.
Thanks lavendargrrl.

Oh, shoot! It's disappointing, I know. Like you said, it wasn't meant to be. But when a house doesn't work out, it's usually because you're going to find something even more perfect for you. I hope you find a great place for Paula's Hosta Haven very soon.

Hope you find the right place. I too garden on a small lot (.17 acres) and cannot wait until the kids graduate from high school. We'll be looking for place back down south with acerage.

just convince yourself.. that it was all bad clay soil.. and maples trees ... lol .. of which i have friends in harrow.. and that was horrible clay ...

i am not kidding... take a trowel with you.. and test soil ... and take pix of trees.. if you cant ID them ...

when i moved from suburbia... my criteria were as listed.. in order:

acreage
soil
polebarn
house

many a nice house was crossed off the list... due to severe issues of the first 3 ...

its Gods will... you will find something else ...

and trust me.. as bucolic as a ravine might LOOK ... it could be a nightmare working in it ... wonder what phil would say about that ... think about wheelbarrowing something uphill for some reason ...

keep us posted ...

ken

Tim, how far south will that be. Still in normal HOSTA growing country I assume.

Too bad,Paula! I could have told you some tales about gardening on a hill,too! I know how expensive real estate can be up there,from watching for years on HGTV,where people would pay 500,00,for a fixer-upper of a house! I mean,come on? I think a 500k house should be a mansion,ready to move in! Anyway,sorry you didn't get it,but maybe you will someday? Phil

Ken, I can't help it, when you mention a polebarn as criteria, I think of your visiting A.I. technician....

Paula, the RIGHT house will come your way, at the right time.

I like Ken's pecking order - land first, always! You can always add to a house, or fix it up, or blast it and start from scratch but the lot it's on stays the same.

A good piece of land is harder to find....unless you are in Mobile and buy an additional lot right next door to add onto yours, right Mocc? Lol lucky girl! :-)

I know you will eventually find the perfect real estate for your hosta kids!

Jo

You'll find the right place, and then be glad the previous ones didn't work out! Good luck.

Thanks everyone, all of your kind comments lift my spirit.

Tim, my current lot is about the same size as yours.

Ken, rest assured that I had my priorities in order. The soil that I have where I am now is wonderful. We are on the Oak Ridges Moraine and in a valley (contradiction, I know) and this used to be farm land in the 1800's, early 1900's so it has been amended with plenty of organic matter. I have certainly done my part to amend it, as well.
The house that we were interested in is 20 minutes east of here and although not as good as this soil, it is fertile, humus and not clay until you dig deep - because 'yes', I checked. The real estate agent is my friend that I have had for 20 years; so she wasn't surprised by my request lol.
My previous home had an embankment and as you mentioned, watering can be a challenge...lots of little 'ditches' and damns and strategically placed rocks.
I admit that I had to google pole barn. We had plans to build a garage with an upstairs.
I have been much less picky with the house as long as it had 3 bed, 2 bath because we could deal with that later but this house was perfect! Oh well, clearly it wasn't perfect or we would be moving into it.
Phil, HGTV is accurate when it comes to the cost of properties in the GTA area. For those of you who are not familiar with Ontario, Greater Toronto Area is the capital city and the suburbs. A bit like Chicago but without the murder rate. We live 75 kms from downtown, so we are definitely on the fringe of the suburbs.
We will keep looking and in the meantime, today I drove to Goldenbrook Hostas and I bought Calico Mouse, Victory, Masquerade, Ruffed Up, Lakeside Cindy Cee and Lakeside Surf Rider :) Ever since I saw uk's Cindy - I had to have one. Once again, I will complain that I don't have the space for them but they cheer me up!

This post was edited by paula_b_gardener on Fri, May 16, 14 at 17:00

Yes, Paula, it's called hosta addiction. Some of my best ones came when I stopped by the nursery on my way back from a chore I didn't want to do. They do lift your spirits.

bk

edit: I ordered LS Cindy Cee on Wednesday from LOTG. UK has some great ruffled ones, mostly in pots.

This post was edited by bkay2000 on Fri, May 16, 14 at 18:17

Sorry reading about you not getting that house. On the other hand, a big lot would have been more work. We once had 1.75 acres with 20 big oak trees. Raking leaves there was a major undertaking, dumping 120 leafbags over a hill in fall, also after that hurricane passed Boston.

I suppose I should have posted my new purchases in a separate thread. Perhaps I will when they have leafed out a bit more and I can take their pictures.
bkay - glad to hear that I am not the only one!

I don't think I would like to deal with 20 big oaks! The property had a forest at the back so I wouldn't have had to clean it up and rake leaves. It looked good in its natural state, however; the more gardens that I put in, the more work there would have been :)

We saw another property tonight that was out a bit further and had 1.3 acres with a beautiful pine forest. The house needed quite a bit of work - nothing structural but quite a bit of cosmetic work.

Like I previously mentioned, in this area in our price range, it is usually good property and so so house or good house and a so so lot. It was $130,000 less so that can go quite a way towards fixing up a house, the question is: do we want to do that at this stage of our lives?