Hosta Love

I remember gardening in Wisconsin and it seemed like people could get a little too "crazy" with Hostas. 

There is nothing worse than a garden bed bordered with a few dozen of the same Hosta all in a row.Well, I can name a few worse things, but that is pretty high on my list.

There are some pretty awesome Hostas available now and most of them on the cheap. I have bought some wonderful Hostas at Home Depot and Fred Meyer for just a few dollars ($3-$5), even a lot of the common varieties are worth growing.

You can spend quite a bit on something new and fancy of course. I just spent $15 on a nice yellow one and bought one with red stems, but I have "price amnesia" on that one. 

For me, some of the most desired Hosta features are:

•  They are nice mounds of color/texture, some having sort of a seersucker effect to their leaves.
• They don't spread everywhere, although they can get BIG over time, so give the really big leaved ones room to grow.
• They are easy to clean up after flowering and in the fall after leaves die back.  
• The flowers can be beautifully big and fragrant or inconsequential.
• They have a way of bringing light to a shaded area or a dark corner of the garden.      

Just be sure to slug bait early and often!  You don't want "Swiss Hostas".  

Hosta 'Thunderbolt'

Hosta 'Stained Glass' mixed in the boarder

Hosta 'Stained Glass'

Hosta x tardiana Halcyon

Hosta fortunei 'Aureomarginata'

Hosta nigrescens 'Krossa Regal'

Hosta 'Paul’s Glory'

Hosta 'Whirlwind'

Hosta 'Fire Island'

Earwigs Freak the Bejeezus Out of Me!

One goal of my gardening has been to create a space full of wonderfully colorful plants that not only look beautiful but also attract insects, birds and frogs.

Many of the plants attract a multitude of bug life to the yard so I try not to use any pesticides. I mostly squish bad bugs with my fingers/shoes or knock them off a plant with a jet of hose water. 

In the summer, there are so many kinds of flies, bees, wasps and hornets, I'm not really sure what any of them are.

I love to watch butterflies, even if they are just those darn white cabbage butterflies. I don't even mind if  caterpillars eat some of the host plants, as long as it is a "good" butterfly. Tent caterpillars are another story.  

I even like spiders, and have been known to feed them in the fall. You know the ones, they make their webs everywhere and make it impossible to not walk through one at some point when reaching down to pull a weed or just walking through your garden.  Ialways wonder if the spider is crawling on the back of my neck and get the willies.

The one bug I can do without are Earwigs.  They freak the bejeezus out of me...

Forficula auricularia - The common Earwig

I know they are harmless, but they have that "ick" factor. It must be the creepy pincer tail and how they try to attack you when provoked. Yuck!

I seem to encounter them most when I am deadheading flowers.  When I dump my tote into the big green compost bin, there are always a few lurking on the bottom trying to get away.

Earwigs primarily consume plant matter, though they also feed on aphids, spiders, insect eggs, dead plants and insects. 

 

So they could be a good bug really?!?  If only they were cuter!