A Garden of Possibilities

Hosta – My first GOOP!

Every gardener makes mistakes. Mistakes are an integral part of gardening and even the most seasoned gardeners still make them.  The best we can hope for is that we learn as we grow as gardeners and move on to making different mistakes instead of repeating the same old ones.

Joene, of Joene’s Garden blog fame, is a CT Master Gardener, fellow Garden Coach and the mind behind a new garden blogging tradition called “Gardening Oops – Damn-I-Wish-I-Hadn’t-Done-That-Day or GOOPs for short.  In a nutshell, Joene’s idea is for gardeners to share our mistakes with each other so we can commiserate, get a good laugh and hopefully learn from each others misfortunes.  You can find Joene’s original blog post about GOOPs here.

So in the spirit of GOOPs, I’m going to share my first major gardening blunder.  About 15 years ago, we moved into our house in Stamford, CT (zone 6).  On the far left property line there was a row of mature hemlocks with the bottom 4 feet or so of branches completely gone and nothing growing under them.  To me, the area cried out for a lush shade garden.

I went to work  researching shade tolerant plants and decided on starting out with hosta.  A well-known CT mail order plant catalog seemed to be the perfect place to purchase my hosta.  I figured if they looked so beautiful in the photo which was taken not more than an hour away from my house, hosta would certainly thrive in my Stamford garden.  I decided to go all out and order a special ‘collection’ of hosta with a total of about 20 plants.  I thought ‘Why waste time, I did my research and hosta grow in the shade, go ahead and take advantage of the quantity discount!”.

The hosta arrived, I planted them and they did indeed grow.  I loved the way they looked and they seemed like the perfect low-maintenance plant.  I was the proud mother of one toddler with a baby on the way and the last thing I wanted to do was spend alot of time pampering plants.

Then the problems began…I first noticed holes in the leaves and discovered the area was full of slugs.  I tried everything to get rid of them, even enlisting my toddler’s help laying out tuna cans which I then filled with beer!  (Yes, I was a proud mother – he could spot a slug trail from several feet away!) This was not the low-maintenance garden I envisioned.

Just about the time I’d rid the area of slugs and gotten the infestation under control the deer discovered the hosta.  Little did I know that hosta is like candy to deer.  In the course of one night, they ate the majority of the plants.  Of course they left behind the hosta that was so damaged by the slugs that the leaves looked like some weird lace.

I was left with either stubs of hosta stems or funky slug-riddled leafs.  Needless to say, my lush woodland shade garden was now an eyesore. 

My biggest mistake can be summed up quite easily – a little knowledge is a dangerous thing!  Sure I had done some research - yes, hosta do tolerate shade – but I hadn’t factored in the single biggest issue in my garden – the deer.  If I’d bothered to look closer I would have discovered that deer and hosta don’t mix.  That mistake was a costly lesson but one I learned a great deal from.  I began learning about deer and their plant preferences and always factored their existence into my plant choices.  That’s not to say I don’t buy plants that are not deer resistant – I just buy one, spray it with Bobbex and keep my fingers crossed all during the growing season.

I’d love to hear about your GOOPS.  Feel free to leave them here or post them on the growing list on  Joene’s Garden.