Pic #2

Pic #3

Pic #4

Pic #5

Pic #6

Pic #7

Pic #8. That's the last one I took this evening. It's getting a little too late in the evening for my cell phone camera!

I do love my hostas. They're not looking their best at the moment, but I love them anyway! I hope you enjoyed the mini-tour.

Your hostas certainly don't look raggedly this late in the season. You should see mine! They look lovely against the blue back drop, also. It just goes to show you that you don't need a lot of space to create something lovely.

DD

I agree that your hostas are looking very good for this time of year. You say you have a small property. Well I do too, so I was especially interested to see what you created. Your hostas are great! Now I am not going to ask you for any names, even though I have to hold myself back! (LOL) Interesting that you have some hostas on your boulevard. Does that mean that your front lawn is full (of hostas)? I would worry that someone would drive away with one. But should I run out of room, I will reconsider!

Thanks, DD. Newhostalady, my front lawn is mostly full of hostas. I believe I mentioned it was about the size of a pocket handkerchief! There is an island of hostas in the middle (See Pic #5) and a wide border of hostas (about 4-4 1/2 feet wide) all the way around the outside. Between the island in the middle and the border on the outside, is a strip of grass about 3-4 feet wide. My husband actually takes the weed whip in there to cut the little bit of grass we have there, rather than trying to carry in a lawn mower.

Of course, it's not ALL hostas. There are hosta companion plants as well :-) We have lots of spring blooming bulbs in the area, primroses (which bloom early and add lots of spring color), lupines, a bed of mostly mixed iris and mums (on the one edge that gets a little sun), columbine, bleeding hearts, ferns, and so on... Also, on the north side of the house (next to the boulevard planting you mentioned) mixed in with the hostas in Pics #1 and #2, we have several rose bushes and quite a lot of hyacinths. And in another spot on the north edge of the house, we have several peony bushes. There's not much room there on the north side though, as our back steps (7 of them, I think) come down from the back porch right to the edge of the sidewalk.

Our back yard contains a small raised bed of strawberries and two small raised veggie gardens (4x12 feet each) behind the garage. The yard extends only about 6 feet from the edge of our deck. That section does get sun, so has hollyhocks on the edge of the deck, a small strip of grass, then a wide strip of spring bulbs (tulips, daffodils, etc), and a single row of iris. On the end of the deck there is a row of cedar trees and a small, very shady area, which I use for a hosta nursery. I have several hostas there that I bought as tiny first year plants, and that are now big enough that I need to be getting them moved out to the yard.. as soon as I figure out where to put them! On the other end of the deck, is a bed of mini and small hostas, some of which have grown larger than expected, and which will also need to be finding a new home out in the main part of the yard.

Then there is an area (about as big as a driveway) between the back porch and the garage. There is actually a little grass there. This is where all the snow that won't fit on the boulevard and sidewalk gets piled in the winter, and is generally under 10+ feet of snow by spring. It is lined, on the garage side, by clematis, asian and oriental lilies, and a single row of small hostas mixed with medium size rocks! On the house side, it is lined by tulips and other spring bulbs, gladiolas (which do come back up every year here-no need to dig the bulbs), and foxglove.

I'll try to get out and grab a couple of pictures from further back, so you can see how small the yard actually is.

We haven't had any problems with anyone grabbing hostas off the boulevard, lol! There are 5 large hostas planted in the ground there, then in between are 4 large pots with hostas in them. The pots are pretty heavy. We do remove the pots from the boulevard in the fall and put them back in the spring. This is one of the few spots we have for piling all that snow that we get, and actually, the spot I was standing on to take Pic #4 is under 12+ feet of snow by spring (as high as our snow blower can possibly blow it). Then, in the late spring, the city blowers come along and remove all the snow from any boulevard that isn't tree lined. They are not too careful about it either, and have been known to damage the grass and (one year, my first here, hauled away several buckets that I had winter seeded in, and had lined up on the small section of sidewalk that we keep clear in the winter).

I guess that comment needs a little explanation too. In winter, we are not allowed to park on the streets here overnight. They have to stay clear for the snow plows. However, we ARE allowed to park on the sidewalks!! How is that for different? Most places, you're required to keep your sidewalks cleared. Here, they not only don't have to be cleared, you can store your cars on them!! So, we pile snow on our north sidewalk and boulevard, and keep only the sidewalk from the back steps to the driveway cleared.

Ok, I think I've rambled enough for one post... I'll try to add a couple more photos (from a wider angle) later!

Oh yeah... we also have four small dogs, which we walk 3 times a day. We are known to everyone for blocks around as either "the people with all the puppies" or "the people on the corner with the yard full of hostas" :-)

Or maybe that's "the crazy people with all the puppies" or "the crazy people on the corner with the yard full of hostas" :-)

Good to see you posting again Joyce! I have to admit that people who live in the UP are a hardy bunch,and I have only been there once,but it was in the summer. Phil

Whoah!
What jumped out at first for me was Pic #4 - boulevard - the sweet hosta in the forefront with the tons of seed pods! Upon review, I see that you have several with big bunches of seed pods. Nice gardens, thanks for sharing :-)

Deb

I enjoyed the tour, thank you! I like the little boy boosting the girl to the fountain.

I understand the snow issues. As a kid in Munising in the '50s, I recall most cars had big 108"cb whip antennas with flags affixed at the top so they could be seen approaching an intersection over the snow banks. it also helped us kids sledding down the hill to keep from getting killed.

curbside hostas - gotta love it

hh

My, oh my, you sure got a lot of variety in that "small" garden---hosta, perennials, veggies, bulbs and fruits. It sounds lovely. It is hard to see how all the pictures fit together, but thank you for giving us details of your yard. Just goes to show that you don't need to have a lot of space to create a ton of beauty!

That's a whole lot of snow you get! Never heard of being allowed to park on sidewalks!

The bigger picture.... If the word big could ever be associated with my yard :-)

This photo shows pretty well the entire front yard. As you face the yard (view from behind the camera) the garage on the right belongs to the neighbor. My property line is about 4 feet before that garage.

This photo, again is the entire front yard. This time, taken from the south west corner of the yard, near the neighbor's garage. The previous photo was taken from the west side.

And this photo is from the north west corner. We are on a corner lot. Again, this is pretty much the whole front yard, just from a different angle.

This is the side yard. It shows the north side of the house. The blue garage, on the left side of the photo, is ours. The steps to the left, are the back steps.

I can actually name one for you here. Sagae. Still somewhat immature, as you can tell from the photo. He's about 4 1/2 feet in diameter. But beautiful..

And Liberty. We have another, larger, Liberty. But this one goes by 'Papou's Liberty' in honor of Papou.

A pretty spot in the front yard.

Another hosta. And that's it for the hostas tonight!

Iris... Another garden favorite! Ok, I'm going, I'm going...

Joyce?! How nice to see you around again. Your yard looks great. It seems to me you had just moved in and started it several years ago. Weren't you also working on a cabin up on some peninsula? How did that turn out? Myrle

Very, very nice.

Don B.

Thanks everyone, for all the nice comments.

Myrle, how nice to hear from you! You are right, I moved here to the Michigan U.P. in June of 2008 and we bought our wooded camp property in October of that year. We have built a little primitive cabin and lots of gardens there! It's much different than the gardens at home, because I avoid the hostas at camp. The deer just love them too much. We garden in berms, and lots of containers of all kinds (we actually have two boats, a 14 footer and a 16 footer, that we have set up as gardens)! We go for all the color we can, and try to have many flowers blooming during every part of our way too short summers. I'll try to figure out somewhere I can post some photos for you. No hostas, so probably not appropriate for this forum!

Who cares? Call it "off topic" and post away. Myrle

Thank you for posting pictures of the garden area around your home. I can picture it much better now! It gives me inspiration to see how a smaller lot can be a hosta haven---and so much more. Many thanks. Also, I agree with Myrle, please post any lovely flower pictures you have and would like to share.