Run for your lives! They're out of control. They are running amok. They're taking over the yard. Beware, those who dare to enter by the back gate. The hostas are in bloom and nothing can stop them.
I kid you not. Some of them are 4-5 feet tall and reaching across the brick walkway. Those cute little asparagus-like shoots are now wide open and bright purple. Later in the season, when their midsummer frenzy has passed and it is safe once again to venture into the northeast corner of the yard, measures will be taken to thin the herd. I have a nice spot picked out for a dozen emigrant hostas, a weedy patch of lawn in front of some pine trees, where I think they will thrive. For now, it is advisable to remain calm, stand back, and behold the power of the hostas.
It must be a sign of high summer. The heat, the humidity, the hazy sky, the scattered thunderstorms. The neighbor to the south mowing the lawn at 8 in the morning, the neighbor to the north playing cornhole til 10 at night. Daylilies dancing at all hours, coneflowers congregating along the back fence, wildflowers running - wild!
I can see the strawberries sending out runners, too, so I'll have to thin them and use the transplants to colonize the bed next door. The beans have climbed to the top of the tripod of poles, and their little white flowers are turning into little finger-sized green beans, yum. Something had been chewing on the bean leaves, and then I saw several pairs of Japanese beetles making out in the morning. Coitus interruptus, I flicked them off to save the bean plants. I reckon they will mate somewhere else. Tis the season.
Let the harvest begin: I picked the first batch of Hungarian peppers, enough to fill a frisbee.
Belaboring the obvious since 1967. "Language is a labyrinth of paths." Ludwig Wittgenstein. "Hush hush, baby don't believe a word." Corky Siegel. “Let me say this about that.” Richard Nixon. "An editor is a person who knows more about writing than writers do but who has escaped the terrible desire to write." E.B. White. "Style is based on limitation." John Hartford. "Easy reading is damn hard writing." Nathaniel Hawthorne. "I'm better off having something to get up for every morning." Edna Case.
About Me
- Sven Golly
- Writing is like prayer: say what you need to say, as if anyone is actually reading it. Assume the head is suspended from above, face the front with the mouth closed and the tongue touching the roof of the mouth. Arms, hands, and fingers hang naturally at the sides. Relax the body, clear the mind, breathe deeply. Inhale, exhale.
2 comments:
I need some hosta advice!
I too have a great deal of them in the front of my house and have been meaning each year (at what time?) to divide them up (how?) and move some into the backyard.
Sounds like you at least have an idea?
I, three, have renegade hostas. Now I'm going to have that stupid "Renegade" song in my head all day.
When Japanese Beetles arrive, I'm thankful for my chickens. The JaBeets only munch on some fancy tree in my front yard. When I finally notice them (after the uppermost layer of leaves resembles a lovely brown lace) I pick them off and throw them to the ground. The chickens hesitate, notice the movement on the ground, and POUNCE! The circle of life. Good times.
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