Ask the Randoms!

Welcome, friends, to my very first edition of -

Ask!
The!
Randoms!

(You guys did all shout that out with me like they do when Wheel of Fortune starts, right? RIGHT?!)

Ask the Randoms will be a segment I'll whip out when I am particularly tickled, intrigued or concerned about the search terms random internet folk have used to find this little slice of heaven we call Bigger, Better, Best.

Today's question is legit. It comes from a random internet searcher who found this ol' blog by searching "will hostas choke out snow on the mountain" on May 24. 


That poor soul landed on my answer-less post about The Pit, wherein I ramble about the woeful state of the southeast corner of my estate and devise a plan to choke out all weeds with a cunning combination of hostas, daylillies and snow on the mountain. 


This random's question peaked my interest. So, I set out to find an actual answer, should said random return.


The articles I found called snow on the mountain an invasive species, which is fine for Pit coverage, but The Pit is rather near our neighbors' yards, so whenever they decide they've had enough of Pit life, we might have some issues. From what I've read, clipping off the flowering parts will help reduce seeding and since the neighbors' yards all touch The Pit with mow-able grass, they'd probably kill all the snow on the mountain with the mower anyway.


This forum discussion had a good perspective on how it behaves locally and this forum of hosta-crazed gardeners included pictures of everything I hope The Pit to be - sans all the little bootie planters. I'm just not a bootie plantin' kinda gal, I s'pose.


The ultimate answer I have in all my non-authority for this Gardening Random is - NO. Based on second-hand stories, snow on the mountain not only won't gobble up your hostas, but will actually be contained by them if the shade is dense enough.


It's been real fun. Join us next time for Ask the Randoms!