Jim and I have been gardening together almost since the day we were married, 34 years in August. Our current gardening activity started shortly after moving to this location in 1994. It was an empty palette: all turf grass with trees around the perimeter. There were no ornamentals save the two lilac shrubs on the cul-de-sac and a row of Hosta ‘Undulata Albomarginata’ along the sidewalk. A nascent interest in shade gardening, fueled by a Minnesota Horticultural Society seminar in which Bob Olson, then president of the AHS, and Clayton Oslund, founder of Shady Oaks Nursery, were presenters, has resulted in the landscape you see now. I don’t call it a garden as I feel gardens are more “planned out” than my landscape will ever be. I’m a collector and rather haphazard in organization, but I do try to arrange the collection in a pleasing manner.

The hostas started in the backyard, as it was in total shade for most of the day. What better place for hostas, I naively thought after that first seminar. The hostas grew O.K. (some better than others), but it didn’t really matter because their myriad shapes, sizes, colors, etc. sparked my “collector gene” and I just wanted more of them. So, I started finding other locations that weren’t in the deep, dark shade to grow them. The expanding planting beds taught me they would tolerate more than just a little sun. I now grow hostas just about everywhere—sometimes a bit outside their “comfort zones”—but gain enjoyment and knowledge from all of them, even the burnt ones.

Please enjoy the hostas in the deep shade of the woods beside the house, the sunnier beds at the edges of the yard, the sunniest beds in the middle of the yard and even the newest area—the only bit that actually has a vision. Plantings there in the lowest part of the property have been in place only one or two years—some may have been planted just last week!