Hosta Farm of Mendon - Your Destination for Inspiration

Garden Tour List

Buck Shed Garden

- Behind shed and around Birches below 

-Rain barrel for livestock water & gardens

Fish Tent Bed / Iris Filter Bed 

– abutting the pasture 

-Water level in Iris filter warrants built up bed for terrestrials.

Barn Bed

– Raised stone wall/bed at NE corner of Barn

-Compaction from gutter overflow. 

-Winter (sun) shelter for tender H. plantaginea hybrids.

Patio Garden (not including Hill by house)

-Dicentra, Daylilies, Perovskia, Callicarpa, sun-loving Hosta

Patio Hill Bed (adjacent to house above stone wall)

-How to deal with a challenging slope and full sun.

Triangle Garden (north & east of In-ground pools to pasture)

-Transitioning to shade, note winter color of Heuchera ‘Caramel’.

North West Gdn (westerly from lawn along pasture to

-C. kousa and wellhead @ north lawn

-Starting with pathway to invite involvement, pending planting

Red & Yellow Garden (north perimeter of house to stoop)

-Revitalize hollies, re-setting stone border for more hosta etc.

-R&Y theme in Hosta, Hollies (berries)

North Garden (horseshoe from Cercis to Sugar Maple)

-Losing older trees, developing succession, replacing lawn area

North Walk Garden / Stone path - No. Gdn. to front door

-Traditional ‘foundation planting’, pathway, hedge= wall

Kitchen Garden 

-Porous/brick path front door to driveway

-Note viewpoint ‘flip-flop’, historic pathway, vegetables, Bird show

Cobblestone Garden 

-Boxwood hedge

-Edging, original two trees (1996)

Shade Garden 

-Garage/ office to business driveway; lawn to load area 

-Silver Maple dominates. 

-First planted in ’96, Waterfall & stream added ‘12ish.

-Soil is depleted, dry – needs significant refreshing in ’26.

Driveway border (north & south; street to parking lot)

-Basically planted 25-30 years ago (Elm, Pines)  

-re-planted ’20-’21 – very sandy, dry, shady, windy – difficult growing area.

Italian Garden (opposite DLD to Rose Hill/street)

-This is our septic field! Very sandy base & tough area for lawn.

-Bright, sunny area in summer but breezy many days, very dry in summer. 

-Lost one large Oak tree in ’23.

Day Lily Drive (east of Bocce Court; driveway to grape Arbor) 

-Pathway is being re-set, compost added, area re-graded toward level of the Bocce surface, some re-planting done in ‘25

Horse Shoe Pit Garden (Coverit to the stone wall/street)

-A cool summer glen. Almost full shade, very acidic soil, dense Pachysandra groundcover. 

- Changes will be coming J

Angel Hill (Slope @ West side of parking lot/ below DLD)

-Fairly steep slope, very sandy, dry, mostly shade. “Angel” theme.

South End (of parking lot) Garden, 

-Path to stream – BRIDGE IS NOT SAFE: STOP HERE! 

-Rich compost/soil, moist, partly shady. 

-Lost one large Ash 2-3 years ago. 

-Pathway edging, step stones & stone dust added in ’25.

-Planting and re-planting ongoing ’25-’26.

South Garden Island & T&A Bank (looking south to neighbors) 

-High ground is nothing but roots and stones / mixed sun & shade spring and summer