After the Hail

After the hailstorm ended I ran out to see what the damage was. A lot of leaves and some branches down, quite a few more bees and assorted insects didn't make it and the hostas are torn and battered.


Like little diamond pearls, the hail and one deceased insect.


Taken yesterday at 10:30 AM, the hostas were at their finest - proud and shiny.


The same plant after the hail, amazingly the flower stalk is still intact but the leaves are shredded.

Host a Hostas

Just because I split a gazillion of these back in the fall doesn't mean I can't transplant a similar number again this Spring, does it? I'm trying to split only the ones I didn't touch last August and September, those I've molested in previous years are fair game.
The aim is to get as much of the ground left bare by my ivy-removing escapades planted with hostas before they get too big to be split. They are currently growing 3" a day, so there isn't much time left....

Hosta(ge)

Of course this would be the other reason my grand plan for hosta domination in the yard might not work out.
I divided and re-planted fifty-two hostas in the dell on Sunday morning. Five different varieties, no less, from giant yellow and green ones like Hermes and Maya are pinning down here, to a tiny pale green one that could be Lakeside Little Gem.
I don't want it to just be a hosta bed so there's also a couple of heuchera in there and a Japanese climbing hydrangea at the bottom of the weeping Juniper as well as a dwarf pink hydrangea, assorted rhododendrons and azaleas and a couple of different hollies. If the day lilies have taken there will be two large clumps of those, too.
But it's the hostas that are fascinating the kittens at the moment.





Ah well. at least they aren't scratching up the furniture......

Screens, doors and hostas

How did I spend my day?
First off I fixed the garage door. Not the one that failed in an ice storm on Valentine's Day this year. The other one. Someone had knocked the sensor off its box, either with the car or while manoeuvring the trash-can out of the garage. We should open the other door to take out the trash but one of us is too lazy and the other too clumsy to do it properly. Anyway, half an hour's playing with the lever, pull knob, buttons and sensor box and the door was fully functioning again.



Then I put back the screen door that the clumsy person knocked off its wheels during the party and even fixed the other one that has been only partially functioning since, oh I don't know, last summer. Pretty good going, huh?
And just because I was already sweaty and and dirty, I thought I might as well transplant another dozen or so hostas. What, you thought I'd finished that job weeks ago? Not quite.



The thing about transplanting perennials in the fall is that they will die back quickly now and then I'm left to wonder for the next six to eight months if they have really taken, or whether I just wasted several beautiful September days getting mucky when I could have been down at the beach with a book soaking up the last of summer.

More photos of hostas

hostas
Originally uploaded by modernemama

This is the bed right at the rear of the yard that I planted the summer before last. The peonies were hidden under weeds, and the rest of the bed was bare except for some suckers from the original rose bed. I dug up those and replaced them with hostas from other parts of the yard and three large leaved variegated ones I bought on sale that fall.
I actually told someone the other day that this bed was planted when we arrived, I had forgotten doing it until I was sorting through some photos from that summer. Looks like I could think about dividing these hostas again, we've plenty of bare spots where they could go.

Dividing day lilies

Dell
Originally uploaded by modernemama

Or how I spent Sunday September 2 Part II.
Digging up, splitting and replanting day lilies. Along the drive, in clumps around the tree stumps in this border, in more clumps by the lawn - next summer there'll be day lilies all over the yard. Yellow ones, orange ones and my favourite burgundy. Then it will all have been worth it.

Newly pruned trees

Newly pruned trees
Originally uploaded by modernemama

Or how I spent Sunday September 2 Part I.
Just a little light pruning to let the sun shine on the lawn and increase our view from the kitchen window (in the far back of the photo) to the road.

Planted split hostas

Planted split hostas
Originally uploaded by modernemama

Or how I spent Saturday September 1 2007.
Split another 10 hostas and replanted 60! Yes 60!!!
Then I weeded. Steven power-washed the brick patio and paths. It's hard to say who was more dirty at the end of the day.
But in the battle with the yard we are definitely winning.

I said dig, not pounce

Hermes flattening the hostas
Originally uploaded by modernemama

Hermes helpfully flattening on of the hostas I divided on Friday.

Dividing the hostas

South drive/Vineyard Rd border
Originally uploaded by modernemama

This is as far as I got dividing the hostas this week. Ten hostas split, oh about a hundred more to go.................