Fading Hostas

The summer’s heat has begun to take a toll on my hosta plants, an August development that I am accustomed to.  But there is still beauty to be seen in the vivid colors of these leaves.

Even as they begin to fade, they make me happy.

Frontyard Flowerbed in July

 It’s the lush and overgrown season around the garden and that is just fine by me.  

I enjoy the morning dew cradled in the elephant ear hosta leaves.  I like the jewelweed showing off in between the hostas and the variegated leaves are especially pretty to me.

And how about those hosta blooms?

I spy this flowerbed from my perch on the front porch each morning and it never fails to make me happy.  In this strange Summer of pandemic anxiety, it is a reminder of the beauty to be found all around me.

The Little Hosta That Could

The hostas in my front yard flowerbed are an assortment I've gathered over the years.  Some are transplants from a friend’s garden, some were split and moved from my backyard, some were purchased from a gardening neighbor who splits his hostas each Spring and then sells the splits for an absurdly low price.  This patch came from the friend and have grown quite nicely.  So determined in fact, that one has even split through the steps.

Any normal person would cut this plant out so that the steps remain secure.  I am not normal and think of this little plant as the little hosta that could.  So it stays (and the steps are just fine, so there is no cause for worry).  This is yet another example of my insane affection for hosta plants.  With this much beauty to behold, who could be sorry?

Spring Garden Joy

All my efforts in the front yard flowerbed over the last few years are paying dividends this month, as the hostas fill the spaces in the soil, just as I intended.

The elephant ear hostas do some heavy lifting in this regard and though they grew a bit slowly, they have been worth the wait.

Alongside the azaleas, they are a daily source of garden joy for me.  

That’s happy!

Front Yard Flowerbed Clean Up

I spent most of Spring Break avoiding a clean out of this flowerbed.  In normal times, I see it every day and the mess would have guilted me into it.

But pandemics and being housebound are not normal and so this flowerbed was easy to avoid.  The mess grew more burdensome as the days passed.

Today, I declared that enough was enough.  In the sunlight and warmth, I decided to get after the chore.  For starters, I knew I would be glad that I had done so.  And though I no longer pull out o this driveway each day, there is no reason I can’t step outside  and admire the flowerbed.  After all, it is at its most beautiful as April yields to the month of May.

A cleanup, which involved pulling off the remains of last year’s hosta blooms and trimming back the multiple shoots of volunteer rose-of-Sharon shoots, was over due.  The work now done, I’ve given the azaleas a shot at pretty flowers.

When the job was finished I took the time to peek over the porch railing and admire my work.

Moving forward, I still have need to clear out the dying evergreen bush on the edge of the bed.  But a daily peek at this flowerbed will bring me a reminder that Mother Nature is at her most lovely in Spring.  A beautiful Spring is a reward unto itself.  And, at a time like this, when worry and anxiety can easily carry the day, Mother Nature’s beauty is the best sort of remedy.

Hostas!

It is an established fact that I love hostas of all sorts.  The varieties that grow in my garden make me happy on a daily basis.  In the last few years, I’ve planted additional varieties.  In the frontward flowerbed, I have some green and white-edged variegated hostas that I think are splendid.

There are also some elephant-eared hostas in shades of green and yellow that I rather enjoy.  These hostas come up slowly in the Spring but when they finally open, they are impressive.

This time a year is perfect weather for hostas —— plenty of rain followed by sunshine and warmth.  May, I find you charming.

Time Lapse Hostas

The front yard flowerbed at my house has been a project for the last few years.  A few unpleasant bushes were removed and the ivy was trimmed.  Daffodil and tulip bulbs, azaleas, and hostas were planted in their place.  The flowerbed gets morning light and comes alive slowly for the first weeks of Spring.  Once the hosta bulbs burst through the soil, the pace of growth is rapid and each day brings a little more unfurling.  This Spring, I stopped to make a picture of that process each day for a week.  From day 1 to day 2 is a bit of a Mother Nature magic in my own yard.

Each day brings a little more green and a little more growth.

I daydream of staying outside all day just to watch it happen.

In the Spring light, the green plants are verdant and lush.

Each day brings a bit more of the brilliant green.

By the end of the summer, the hostas will fill three times as much space as they occupy now.  I can never get enough of them, so that will be very happy indeed.

December 1: Garden Hostas

The hosta beds are all at rest this month.  When I look at them, it’s hard to believe that they were so vibrant just a few months ago.  

 They look tired and ready for a long rest; rather how I feel on Friday night at the end of a busy week..

Winter’s quiet is as good for these plants as it is for the rest of us.  I look at these garden beds and realize again that Mother Nature clearly knew her business when she planned the four seasons.

November 1: Garden Hostas

Garden hostas look good until they don’t and we’ve had enough frost in the past few weeks to end their season.

The leaves that remain will race to soak up the sunlight before they decompose in the frost and cold.  In this fashion the plants get set up for next year’s growing season.  

Fall has been lovely so far and we’re smack dab in the peak season right now.  Seasonal change outdoors is a reminder for me to pause.  I’ll use the coming cold weather to curl up under a warm blanket and rest.  I’ve brought all my plants inside and have fairy lights and candles for the dark nights that are coming.

Of course I’ll have garden catalogs and plans for the next growing season to make.  I’m thinking about planting some more hostas alongside the house and I’ve bulbs to plant for Spring blooms.  For me, this is the real beauty of living in a place with all four seasons.  Each is lovely on it’s own, with reminders of blessings received and blessings forthcoming.  

October 1: Garden Hostas

The hostas are weary by this time of the year, the result of all the growing that has been accomplished in the last few months.

Usually, October’s weariness is accompanied by dry and brittle leaves but the rains of the last month have rather prevented the usual dryness.  The hostas are as cheerful as they can be with fall on the horizon.

We’ve another warm week on tap and the longer that frost stays at bay the greater the odds I’ll have a few more weeks of hostas to enjoy.

As summer leans into fall, and my garden starts to look spent, I appreciate the quiet the coming season will bring.  Mother Nature isn’t quite ready to say goodbye to warm days; the week promises daytime temperatures in the 70s.  So I will use these last days to enjoy a few more days in the garden.

September 1: Garden Hostas

A typical summer around here results in lots of August heat but not enough rain to keep up with the heat.  By this point in the year, my hostas tend to look wilted and sunburned, a little worn out by the effort of keeping up.  But this has been a rainy summer and so most of my hostas are still looking rather nice.  

Lush, even.

It’s hard to say goodbye to a summer with this much green still in it.  But the students return to school on Tuesday.  Clothes must be ironed; shoes must be worn.  

Luckily, there are still hostas to be admired.  And admire them I will. 

That’s happy!

August 1: Garden Hostas

The summer seems to be flying by and I am nowhere ready to see it end.  After a patch of very hot and dry weather, summer storms returned last week and the hostas were ready to drink up the raindrops.  Some of my front yard hostas have found themselves snack food for the local wildlife.

Others have escaped the hungry critters.

In the backyard, the garage hostas are looking lovely and lush.

In the shade of the back deck, this patch is doing quite nicely.  

We’ve more than four weeks before school begins, so as far as I am concerned, summer is alive and well.  I intend to soak up all the greenery it offers.

July 1: Garden Hostas

May brought the rain and June brought the sunlight.  Thanks to both, July’s hostas are looking quite lovely, with stalks and flower blooms to celebrate the summer.  

Most of the hostas are doing well, unmolested by the deer and rabbits.

I especially love this lushness, which is thriving in the heat thus far.  If today’s furnace-like temperatures are any indication, we’ll need some rain to keep pace in July and avoid sunburned edges on these plants.  

But for now everything is lush and lovely.  Summer, I’m charmed.  

June 1: Garden Hostas

May was a busy month of blooms, thanks to abundant sunlight and rain.   My hosta beds rather led the way.   In the front yard, the addition of these elephant-leafed variegated hostas has been a treat.  They remind me of some hostas I saw in Sweden in 2014 and I admire them every morning.

This flowerbed has been a two year project and I am delighted by it every day.

In the backyard, the hostas along the garage have filled in the flower bed in which they rest quietly all Winter.

By the back deck, there are more hostas.  

I transplanted some hostas to this line along the west edge of my house.  The bed needs some mulch but is otherwise growing quite nicely.

Perhaps this more mature assortment also alongside the house provided inspiration?

I first began to admire hostas when I lived in Nashville.  To have so many of my own is a treat I never grow tired of enjoying.  That’s happy!