Back in 2024, I reimagined the bed as a dedicated hosta garden, planting at least 23 different hosta throughout the space.
The plan was simple: let them grow naturally and see how the bed evolved.
By 2025, the results exceeded my expectations. The bed looked fantastic and required very little maintenance beyond routine care.
This year, however, the first signs of overcrowding have begun to appear.
While not every hosta has expanded, most have grown enough that neighboring plants are beginning to overlap. As the leaves compete for space, some plants are no longer displaying their best form, and a few have started to suffer from reduced airflow and crowding.
The long-term solution will come this fall. Many of the hosta will need to be divided, with half of each clump replanted in the bed and the remaining divisions potted into buckets. That should restore adequate spacing, provide another couple of years of relatively low maintenance, and—perhaps best of all—leave me with plenty of bucketed hosta for other projects.
For now, I opted for a temporary fix by selectively pruning some of the overlapping leaves.
The light thinning has opened up the bed considerably. It still looks lush and full, but the plants now have a little more room to breathe, and the overall appearance is noticeably improved.
I also took this opportunity to prune back the Dwarf Maple at the center of the bed.
Doing so provided additional space for hosta leaves and sunlight to access the underside of the tree.
The plan was simple: let them grow naturally and see how the bed evolved.
 |
| 2024 |
By 2025, the results exceeded my expectations. The bed looked fantastic and required very little maintenance beyond routine care.
 |
| 2025 |
This year, however, the first signs of overcrowding have begun to appear.
While not every hosta has expanded, most have grown enough that neighboring plants are beginning to overlap. As the leaves compete for space, some plants are no longer displaying their best form, and a few have started to suffer from reduced airflow and crowding.
The long-term solution will come this fall. Many of the hosta will need to be divided, with half of each clump replanted in the bed and the remaining divisions potted into buckets. That should restore adequate spacing, provide another couple of years of relatively low maintenance, and—perhaps best of all—leave me with plenty of bucketed hosta for other projects.
For now, I opted for a temporary fix by selectively pruning some of the overlapping leaves.
 |
| Post Prune |
 |
| Post Prune |
The light thinning has opened up the bed considerably. It still looks lush and full, but the plants now have a little more room to breathe, and the overall appearance is noticeably improved.
I also took this opportunity to prune back the Dwarf Maple at the center of the bed.
Doing so provided additional space for hosta leaves and sunlight to access the underside of the tree.
