Hostas Hostas Everywhere

I'm slowly chipping away at the stuff that needs to be done outside. I removed the dog kennel poles last weekend and my basil garden has taken off, but I haven't spent that much time with the yard. I hate wasting water on the lawn, so our grass is patchy and brown; I don't really care about having a well-manicured, green grass. To avoid my apathy toward grass in general, my goal is to have as many plants tastefully filling the yard as possible. Of course, this will take some time and effort, but I much rather have perennials that are easy to maintain, while helping to increase our house's curb appeal.

That being said, I've started working on the terrace in the backyard. I plan to move my way forward to the dog kennel, with a sidewalk (maybe) by the end of the fall. As you can see, the back terrace has some real potential; I'm just having trouble envisioning what I really want back there.

The area is well-shaded, so plants requiring a lot of sun are out. My mom recommended using hostas. According to her, they're shade loving and almost impossible to kill (two bonuses). She also gave me two of her hosta plats as a house warming gift. On top of that, our flower bed along the front of the house has some hostas that were extraordinarily out of control, for not having anything done to them. I was quite happy because they're expensive little plants. After digging out three from the frontyard and planting my mom's, here's what the second terrace looks like now with the hostas.

There are still more weeds and over growth than intentional planting. I still have a long way to go, but it's a start. The previous owners had left three bags of radiant black mulch as well. It works pretty well, and I will probably go to a gardening store to buy some more bags, giving the second level a much more even look. 

Because the plants were sitting in a bucket of water for over week, they're looking pretty rough, but I expect them to do all right for the rest of the summer. In the mean time, I have a coworker who has offered some of her hostas, so I plan to have the entire second terrace filled with the plants. The next step will be tearing out all of the weeds and dead bushes on the main terrace. It should prove a challenge, I'm sure.