The Hosta

Former Hosta bed

Yesterday I cleared out the last of the Hosta from their bed on the north side of my back yard. They were not doing well there, too much sun for a bunch of shade-loving plants. When I bought this place it was full of perennial plantings, including lots of Hosta. There were also quite a few trees shading them so they were happy. But over the years I have had to cut down a bunch of trees and now most of the Hosta are over-exposed and not so happy. They get sunburnt. Last fall I had a dying pine tree cut down next to the northside Hosta bed so this year they are way over exposed.

There's only so much shade left in the back yard, I can't save them all. But this particular bed was the worst looking because the plants were small and struggling. The older and bigger plants may not like the sun but they have the resources to survive a few months of it.

I started moving the Hosta from the northside bed a couple of weeks ago, finding locations for each plant where it would get a mostly shady day, digging it up and transplanting it. This is work I can only do on relatively cool days, it is quite strenuous. Yesterday was a cool day and there were five plants left to move. I found spots for three of them on the north side of the house, the rest I simply moved a few feet eastward so that they were partially shaded by a large clump of Solomon's Seal. Not Hapi's Solomon Seal but another one.

Hapi's Solomon Seal with emergency stash of old bones

Now I have an empty garden bed to think about. A neighbour sells day lilies every summer from his extensive back yard daylily plantation. He had some out in his driveway a couple of weeks ago but they are not there anymore so I guess he sold them all. I used to walk by his house every day with Hapi on our way to the Reservoir, but we drive now because it's too far for Hapi to walk, so I don't get a lot of opportunities to chat with him about when he might have more for sale.

I'll have to think about it, see what comes up.

And in case you are wondering what is the point of writing about this, here it is. I view this blog as a kind of diary or journal of daily life. I like to record things that happened and this is as good a place as any. I am not really concerned about having a big audience or trying to increase my readership, I am just writing this for my own satisfaction. You're welcome to read and comment, but don't expect big things here.