Blue angel and lakeside dragonfly (and a lotta mud)

I love these projects (when they involve hosta, mostly)! Good luck, I'm sure it'll look great when you're done tackling it.

Please post pics periodically...

Regards,
Don B.

All this empty space, can plant so many hostas. You are getting into a lot of fun! My 4 yr old Blue Angel is now 29 in tall, 5 ft wide, leaves are 13x13 inches wide. Bernd

when planting on a hill...

you need to make a little moat of sorts.. so that when you water.. the water will actually stay there.. long enough to soak in ...

dig into the hill behind.. and bring that soil forward .... to create a level spot with high sides.. so the water will hesitate there.. long enough to soak in ...

whats the story on all the mud... i would not be walking on a bed that wet.. nor planting.. for fear of making concrete out of the soil ... ... with of course.. the caveat of.. you gotta do .... what you gotta do.. when time is available ...

that is s terrific spot... i do want you to succeed ...

ken

Thanks ken! I like this idea of the moat!! I will try it and hike the edging rocks up a little higher above the root ball. The water was the last step after I got out of the bed. I used the hose from a distance to avoid walking on the mud and because I'm not sure how I'm going to water this bed yet.

You can't see for the mud but I also dug in a paving stone path to walk on to avoid both compaction and turned ankles. Now I have to find those stones again! I'm also going to mulch the thing (and hope the mulch has time to knit together before the first big rainstorm)

Thanks Bernd, I tried to leave a hefty space in between ba and lakeside since I knew she'd expand so much! It's painful for me to space perennials properly, I just hate looking at big patched of dirt/mulch.

Ps ken I was thinking of you when I planted Abba Dabba Do! But I went a little TOO hog wild on the tape!

If all else fails you could terrace this level

You have quite a challenge there, but I'm sure the end result will be worth it---hostas show so well on a slope going up from the viewer. Such potential!
Jan

IF I can control the runoff using rocks n vegetation, I'd like to leave it sloped. If not I'll start in with the railway ties. As you can see that Zebra grass is in it for the long haul and serves to stabilize the middle there. I think it would be even harder to pull out than the enormous bridal wreath spirea I wrestled out of the ground last year!

The old owners had the bed planted with ivy, junipers (which were just loving all three hours of sun they got each day :P) and lots and lots o' goutweed. You know you have a weed problem when ivy seems completely harmless by comparison.

My plans involve quite a few more hosta, ferns, and more ornamental grasses. Maybe some woodland phlox and lamium. I'd like to find something nice to drape over the wall too.

I used English ivy for a wall I want to cover but it can be an invasive plant but kept under control it will drape nice over the retaining wall and stay green. Grows fast too.

I like the rocks better for retaining soil around plants and once completed will look beautiful. Keep pictures coming on your progress
Faye

Good luck! It looks like it could be a beautiful area. I love sloped beds because they show the plants so well, but they are a challenge. The erosion is bad enough, but what really drives me crazy is having the mulch all slide to the bottom.

Yes, I'm HOPING spreading the mulch in the "dry" season (note: Nova Scotia basically has quite rainy and depressingly rainy seasons) will allow it to knit together before hurricane season. But can picture getting out the rake in spring for sure.

Rob,

Great project. Great spot for Hosta. If you are looking for a Hosta that will drape over that wall edge try a Hosta with scapes that "flop" like H. pycnophylla and it's progeny. Gilt by Association, Shimmy Shake and Frisian Pride all have these kinds of scapes.

Steve

Have you seen the stuff that looks like large burlap? It helps hold the soil while the young plants are getting established. It's called jute netting, I think. They use it a lot around here.

bk

I just bought Heucherella Yellowstone falls to plant near the edge of a stone wall. It is supposed to trail 2-3 feet. I hope it does. Anyway, its another possibility for a draping plant. Love your project, Beverly

Is mulch good or bad for hosta I can't get the answer anywhere I keep getting the same article that says mulch is pretty much the devil what brand of mulch do u use for your hosta slope looks good btw

steve -- I'll keep an eye out for those hosta!

bk - thanks for the tip! That sounds like a great idea. Of course it's raining here all week (again) so I guess I'll have a good idea how much soil moves down.

Beverley -- thank you for YOUR tip too! I am always looking for trailing shade-tolerant perennials because I have so many paver-stone walls I want to soften. That heucherella looks stunning! I really like the look of sunrise falls too.

michael - I do use organic double grind bark mulch (by the truckload!). I am a newbie gardener so I can't tell you the long term effects but in the short term my hosta look terrific. I don't pile it up around the crown, but keep it more around the edges of the plant. It really helps with the weeding situation - the weeds are fewer to come up and a lot easier to pull out. I don't use a lot of fertilizer and I think some of my perennials that are heavier feeders are becoming nitrogen starved because I guess if you sort of mix the mulch into the soil (which I do every time I plant, despite my best intentions and raking all the mulch to one side) it ties up the nitrogen for a bit. SO, I keep meaning to fertilize lightly with a nitrogen fertilizer, but haven't gotten around to it.

Here is a link that might be useful: American Hosta Society blurb about mulch

Informal terracing is good. A simple string of rocks can do wonders.

Back in 2000 when I tired of mowing a slope, I removed the grass and more or less criss-crossed the slope with lines of small rocks, football to softball size, to hold the soil back. Didn't want straight lines, just pockets to plant. You can kinda see it in these pix from 2001.

Just something to divert the water a bit and slow it down will do wonders.

tj

tj - I love your conifers! That settles it, I need some more rocks for my slope. I think I'm failing the hosta-driveway test because I find I don't want to put any of my lovely hosta in the bed until I know it is stable! Made some progress today and hope to have pics to share next week.

no such thing as too much tape ... lol

ken

In progress pic from above. The grass (huge thing in middle) is loving its daily watering and is getting even more monstrous. I have the bed mostly planted and mulched. I put in a lot of "garden swap" plants like geranium, common daylily, lady's mantle, pulmonaria, some kind of purple wort, and autumn joy sedum, idea being I won't feel so bad ripping them out when the hostas grow! I overplanted here, really, just to try to protect the soil.

In the back next to the house you can see two densi-gem yews--i like having evergreens below ground level windows and I love the lowly yew. What's not to like about trouble free deep evergreen foliage that tolerates shade?

You can see some of my little stepping stones winding through the bed in the middle. So far I haven't broken an ankle wandering around up there...
I also planted a lot of grasses and ferns to help stabilize the slope.

Yesterday I left the sprinkler on by mistake when I went to the beach. So the plants got an august monsoon!

Hosta in the bed so far: mature striptease I rescued from an air vent, montana aureomarginata (still so very tiny), abba dabba do. two common noids in the back, fragrant bouquet. Moon river, krossa regal, lakeside dragonfly, and blue angel.

This post was edited by robotropolis on Mon, Aug 12, 13 at 11:31

PS I'm going to order some more hosta in the fall, just waiting for this weather to cool off! 'Til then it's just what I see around here.

The soil in this bed was very 'dead' - just fill, really, inorganic and not much insect life. It doesn't get many tree leaves on it either. I accidentally ordered some triple mix instead of topsoil earlier this year, so the whole bed's now been amended with triple mix and I'm hoping between that and all the new plants that it will be a friendlier environment for bugs and plants.

This post was edited by robotropolis on Mon, Aug 12, 13 at 11:29

Robot, sooner or later, the soil will wash down against the rocks. That might leave the hosta roots exposed a good bit.
Instead of simply relying on the rocks and "vegetation," which will NOT hold the soil nor the water (which is important), please do like Ken suggests, with the terracing to create flat spots where the water will stick long enough to soak in. Otherwise, think about some landscaping timbers which will wind up hidden by the leaves of your hosta and shrubbery.

Can you trim the existing shrubs UP a bit so you can plant beneath them, and also so the light can get there?

Is the back of the bed against the house? Or do you have a walkway there? If you have a walking path behind the bed, think about adding some trailing plants which will further add to the appreciation of this great flower bed.

You are going to have a lot of fun with this area.

hi moccasin, thanks for the feedback!

I already created the flat moats around the hosta roots that Ken was talking about. I dug the hostas back into the slope, planted them flat and dug some rocks in above the soil line to shore up the area around the roots. I think they should hold although I plan to monitor.

We have clay soil that clumps well, so I believe I mostly have to keep the soil intact until it's no longer fluffy. I was looking at hillside gardens in my area and they all seem pretty happy and healthy without terraces. We also have the dubious advantage of near-constant year round rainfall but very rarely driving rains such as you might see in the South. Important caveat: we always seem to have hot, dry weather for two weeks straight whenever I plant up a bed, so consult me if you're planning a beach vacation in Nova Scotia!

I agree those shrubs need some help! None will look very good trimmed up, sadly. Eventually they will be replaced with Japanese maples and evergreens. They're not really blocking much light, they're just hiding my neighbour's house. Now if I could chop down my neighbour's giant maple that blocks the morning light...or my other neighbour's giant maple that blocks the evening light...but then I wouldn't have such good hosta conditions!

(edited for wordiness)

This post was edited by robotropolis on Tue, Jun 10, 14 at 16:39

Progress photo. Added a JM Inaba Shidare bottom left to (hopefully) drape over the wall, lots more filler perennials waiting to get booted out when the hostas take over! There are 12 in there now and can fit another 15-20 I reckon. Could I claim hostas as home improvements to my banker? :)

This year's project is covering that ugly foam foundation to the right. I was happy to see that the mulch didn't slide down over the winter, even though we had heavy snows.

This post was edited by robotropolis on Tue, Jun 10, 14 at 16:47

I had a similar slope by a rock wall that I covered with hostas many years ago. It took a long time to clean it off and get dozens of hostas planted there. I didn't have much of a runoff issue with soil, however I ran into that problem on another slope last year that I have also converted into a "hosta hill".

For that soil erosion issue, I also used rocks and also some burlap just laid down on the soil and cut around the hosta. That worked great and the burlap eventually decomposed away. I'm tackling yet another sloe in our yard this year. (Can you tell our property is hilly??)
It's always a challenge but the payoff is magnificent.

July progress, actually had to water everything yesterday as it's been unusually hot and dry here.

The filler perennials are definitely filling in and I'll keep loading hostas in here as well. Right now it's very, well, the kind word might be naturalistic. I'd say messy and disorganized. But so nice to have lush greenery back there!

It's a bit late for this advice but ... there will be other people with slopes.

When you set in the rocks, especially flagstones, partly bury them with a slant that can retain water for you, and hold soil. Flat rocks are better than rounded ones for this

Look at "how to build a rock garden" plans and you can see how they do it ... make it look like a slate or flagstone outcropping. You can do it with any flat, substantial rocks, even concrete chunks or granite scrap. I saw one in Korea done with their BIG roof tiles.

I dug the rocks in and facing backward, but only used what was available in the yard (so, rounded). I think as I work on the bed I'll try to source some larger rocks. Good idea to get flatter ones as well. There is no access for machinery to the yard so I'm limited to what I can carry.

So far nothing looks too dry and everything lived through the winter except some ornamental grasses which may have been annuals.

This post was edited by robotropolis on Mon, Jul 14, 14 at 11:20

You know, I was thinking that you have a perfect location for hiding a couple of rain barrels or a cistern sort of tank. The slope is good that you could connect a couple of hosts for drip irrigation, then empty out the tank, disconnect the hoses for winter. That would beat dragging water hoses with sprinklers which contribute to more erosion, right?

You have sure done wonders with your property, and none of the work you've done appears to be easy. Lose your footing on that slope and oh boy, take a tumble in the parking area!

What you have done so far, it is great! And where a slope is difficult, it also shows off your plants individually. I have to scheme to get elevation, and there you are with elevation built in. :)

Looks very great, Robotropolis. You are nailing it, and it shows.

I love your user name, too. Old Twilight Zone/Outer Limits episodes come to mind. : )

Don B.

All coming around very nicely. Thanks for the updates.

tj