What My Patio Taught Me About Gardening

Is my patio teaching me about gardening or is the hosta growing in the patio teaching me something about plants?

And just what did I learn from their teachings?

I learned that a hosta can grow just fine in the cracks in a patio, though I don’t advise anyone to try to purposely plant a hosta in their patio.

This particular hosta has been here for several years, growing a bit bigger each year. (Perhaps I’ve posted about it in the past? Shrug. I don’t remember and I’m too lazy to go look.)

Regardless, this is the first year it has bloomed. Look at that flower stalk! Isn’t it marvelous?

Generally, I don’t have hostas coming up from seeds all over the garden. Does anyone? Most of the time, I cut off spent blooms on hostas before they set seed.

So how did this hosta seed get here?

As I recall, I once had a big container sitting in that area where I had temporarily planted a bunch of hostas I had purchased without knowing where I was going to plant them. (No judging! I’m not the first gardener to do something like that and I won’t be the last!)

I do believe those hostas must have flowered, set seed, and then in a heroic effort to help them escape the container, the mama hosta dropped her seeds down onto the patio, telling them to make her proud and grow up to be good hostas. (“Yes, Carol, that’s exactly what happened!”)

Well, the container part is true. It did have hostas in it, and clearly one of them must have gone to seed, but the part about the mama hosta? Make of that what you will.

Regardless, my patio AND this hosta are teaching me that you don’t need perfect conditions to grow plants. Yes, it helps to have a bit more soil than that hosta is growing in, but, gosh, look at it. Don’t you think it looks pretty darn good?

I’ll bet its mama hosta, wherever it is, would be so proud of how her seed grew and flourished and finally flowered, all while growing in a crack in a patio!