Cebulka,
I'm from Germany and normally we are also far from spring end of January. But in the region I'm living (360 meters above sea level) we had a really strange winter so far. The sky went grey in November and it is raining nearly every day since. The garden is like a swamp and nothing has the chance to get dry.
Last year we had a frost period with snow and -20°C end of January to mid of February. That was better because the days were sunny and the glittering snow is so nice. But it was nice to be outside for a few hours yesterday and do some work in the garden. I miss this a lot in winter.
Watering in summer is not such a big problem as you would think. I have a well in the garden and a small electric pump so I can use that or the rainwater barrels. The hostas are close together in my small garden so not much water gets lost on things I don't want to grow. The wonderful thing about hostas is that they also help fighting weeds. Since I have them I have only small weeds in spring but nearly nothing comes out under their broad leaves in summer
Fabiola,
hostaworld and hostaparadise have such a nice selection of hostas. I can not stop looking at them and of course buy some. I also have found a small dealer in Germany and one in Austria. They have nice healthy plants and I like to buy their own small collections who are called Chiemsee and Oberland. You may have noticed a few Chiemsee hostas when I showed my C...Chiemsee Blaue Taube is one I really love. But my best contact is my friend Renaat from Belgium. He has a big collection of wonderful old hostas and is always up to date with new ones because he knows all the hybridizers in Belgium and the Netherlands, including Jeroen Linnemann and Danny van Eechaute.
I had a Facebook contact with Rosliny od Ogrodnika in Poland and maybe I will buy a few heuchera and ferns there.
Those stairs are not homemade, unfortunately I am not so talented with saws but I fixed them together all alone and that is how far my technical skills go
Have a nice sunday!
Karin