if it were me.. id lay down a hose to define the bed edge.. and then round up the grass.. and then a few days later ... see if any of the grass isnt yellowing .. spot spray what i missed ... and then plant the hosta.. and then add wood chips ...

go ahead and try your experiment .. you can always dig the hosta back out and fall .... and then kill the grass and put them back ...

i can think of a multitude of problems... but i want you to experiment.. and keep us posted .. [in other words in to lazy to talk you out of it ..lol]

but i will mention one.. will slugs hide in tall grass ...

ken

do you have an inspiration photo?..my neighbor's hostas have similar spacing surrounded by mulch..I have plenty of "grass" on my lot next to my hostas but the hostas are massed together in a bed..I haven't tried leaving them apart to be able to walk around them..

Once the grass starts growing through the hosta roots - and it will - you will regret this decision :-)

Lol Steve you must just be in a funk, your yard is meticulous every where! I would not. You will just create a real headache for yourself. Do it once, do it right is my motto.

I have to wonder with you steve, why do we cut grass......why do we even have grass?

Unless, you don’t want a “perfect” one, you have to use all kinds of chemicals to keep it weed free.......that means poisoning our ground water and God knows what else......can’t even have your kids or animals out while they do it. That’s not for me anymore. Also, I like the idea of garden wherever there is grass. Little by little, the grass is going. And I agree with gardengal, you know how hard it is to get the grass out in the first place, those roots!

So, as peren says, do it once, do it right. And remember the SLUGS!! 😱

debra

Well, I have lawn because I have dogs who need to run and having giant beasts galloping through beds tends to ruin the plants, lol. I can't train them to stay out of beds unless I give them an alternative so lawn it is. I don't use any chemicals and consider anything green as a suitable plant to grow in a lawn space, so I'm fine with my practices.

I couldn't do the grass in the beds thing because it would drive me nuts eventually and I'd have to weed it. I can hand weed all day as long as I am just pulling but grasses need to be DUG out and that's a different story according to my elbow joints.

I've tried starting beds with herbicides and mulch and have always regretted it- to me nothing is acceptable for starting a new bed except a flat shovel taking off the grass and the roots. I'll never again do it any other way.

Thanks for the input. No inspiration but what rattles around in my head. The place is like a desert from the maple tree roots so the grass doesn't grow well anyway. Hence the need for the spin out bags. Hard to imagine the grass roots being a problem here. Also hard for me to imagine tall grass here as it barely eeks out a living, but then it does get cut every week.

My lawn looks terrible. Just no desire to do the work to have a nice lawn. I've been improving it slowly, but then the only reason for it is the dogs. Also, the reason it looks like carp (as Ken would say). I do have a 3' fence I can put up to stop the hounds racing into the area. I was kind of hoping to let them roam freely as they can access the bed around the fence anyway (unless I buy more fence) and they like to stare at the deer in the woods and its one more deterrent for the deer. Maggie is good about avoiding the plants. At least when they are up and growing. But Bo just trudges over anything and hasn't found a plant yet that he doesn't want to pee on. I just accept that the dogs are more good than harmful to the plants, as they also help chase the rodents away.

I suppose I'm just trying to avoid the work, but that never ends well for me. I like the idea of do it once, do it right. That would mean removing the grass so I can patch bare spots in the lawn. Then I can lasagna the bed around the Hosta so I need not be too thorough with the grass removal.

We have dug out grass for beds and have planted both hostas and daylilies. We have never quite gotten rid of the grass. It keeps popping up. Weeds tend to gravitate to the grass. It’s a mess. You have pots so that’s different but your yard looks pristine I don’t know if you would like the result.

I was thinking of that Beth. I used cardboard for my first bed but more as a weed suppressant. Judging by the amount of weeds the cardboard is long gone. I would do that here, but I need the grass for bare spots in the lawn.

I must have wimpy grass. I've never had an issue with it after removing it for a bed other than the random tuft.

Steve, you said, “ the place is a desert from maple tree root.” Won’t it be difficult to plant your hostas amongst all those maple root? Or maybe you have a good way to do that ==>> plant amongst the roots that is.......if so please share!

debra

Spin Out Bags

The website doesn't work, so call if you want something. Also his sewing machine was on the fritz when I ordered a few weeks ago. Should be repaired by now. He also has other size bags. I like the 5 gallon size that I linked. I use 3 gallon for small Hosta and 7 for xtra large Hosta. I've used the 10 gallon, but I don't like digging holes that big. Perhaps if he made something broader and less deep, that would be ideal. He also sells the fabric and you could make your own.

Steve, we've planted the hostas inside pots and then put the pots in the spin out bags turned inside out, is that what you do? We bought the 5 gallon bags, planted the hostas inside 3 gallon pots from A M Leonard. Then we turn the spin out bags inside out, put the pots inside the bags and dig a large hole and plant them. We have a large red maple in the front yard, have poor grass under it since the roots are everywhere. The bags are extra deep but that's ok. Sewing the bags is not an option since we barely have time to weed, etc. but for those of you who are handy and have time, why not?

I plant directly into the bags. I want as big a root system as they can muster within the bags. Your way is safer as I have had some roots invade a couple bags after turning them inside out. Jay will sew them inside out with the black, root preventing fabric on the outside (if you ask) which just seems way better as the maple roots like to attack the seam which is harder to find when the bags are sewn this way. I planted the old bags with the seam away from the trees after I learned my lesson.

We first did it 3-4 years ago so this year it's time to pull out the pots and refurbish the planting medium, put them in new bags and put back into the ground. So much work with the roots, ugh. Maybe we will divide them if the pots are crammed full of roots, more ugh. Why did I plant that red maple in the yard?