My dream of raising supercharged hostas that will independently overpower all the grass and weeds around them has faded away, and reality has set in.

Just about a year ago, I shared in this space what I thought was a brilliant landscaping scheme. I planned to use hostas alongside our old Belmont Markethouse building to mitigate a couple of issues there. That strip of grass between the foundation and the sidewalk gets battered by rain water running off the metal roof overhead. The soil is rocky, and because it is on the north side of the structure, it is spongy and partially covered in moss, making it tough to mow.

I had been trying for a couple of years to figure out what to do there. So, last spring I decided I would try planting hostas. I already have a few hostas in front of another building on that side of the property, and they grow to become enormous every year so I figured it was worth a shot.

I ordered two dozen plants online. They arrived individually bagged with their roots surrounded in saw dust.

With my husband Mike’s help, I managed to plant them all over the course of a couple of evenings. Every one of them took root and started to grow.

“I am sure I will need to trim and pull weeds around them for the remainder of the current growing season, but I am hopeful that they will return next year and grow to be as large as my existing hostas,” I wrote last June. “If that happens, they likely will control the grass and weeds simply by overshadowing them.”

I was mistaken.

Nearly every plant survived the winter. The couple of casualties I have had stem from my carelessness or Mike’s when we have mowed over them or otherwise accidentally cut them down. However, they are not the miraculous solution I had hoped for. I am still determined, though, to improve the overall appearance and ease of maintenance of our yard in that area.

Although the hostas are quite a bit bigger this year than they grew to be in 2024, the grass and weeds around them outpaced them. Once everything started to grow, I hesitated to trim around them for fear of damaging their leaves (and secretly still in hopes that they would overtake everything around them).

Last week, I decided the situation was out of control. I put on my gardening gloves, got down on my hands and knees and started pulling weeds away from them. I then took five-gallons buckets and placed them over top of each hosta plant, pulling them gently away from one another so I could trim between them. That worked beautifully.

Now, I am left to decide what to do next. I could continue to trim around them this year and see what happens. It’s more likely, though, that I will install weed control fabric and place river rocks on top of it all around them.

If I do that, it will match a similar area where I installed rocks around our front porch and will eliminate the need to mow that section of lawn.

As I wrote a year ago, sometimes you just have to make the best of things.

“Otherwise, that fast-moving thing we call life might just become overwhelming. Don’t dwell on disappointment. Instead, find another answer or another way to make your situation work for you.”

∫ ∫ ∫

Another quick update — this time about my effort to walk more and improve my well-being.

After I wrote my first column about that around a month ago, a friend informed me that the loop I had chosen was almost exactly a 1-mile trek. Since then, I have changed up my route slightly from time to time, always making it slightly longer by adding a block in one direction of another.

I will admit I have not yet managed to make it a daily habit, but I have been able to stick to my walking routine at least three or four days a week. And, when he can, Mike now joins me on a more regular basis.

In addition to getting a bit of exercise, I have enjoyed brief chats with neighbors, learning where various neighborhood pets seem to live and watching kids play baseball and basketball on the old school grounds.

It is definitely something I intend to continue, and I recommend it for anyone who is healthy. If you’re able, get out and take a stroll.