Garden Claw or Weasel??

[Schattenfreude]

My sister has always had big, nice hostas and today she tells me that she goes out every spring and uses a garden claw to aerate the soil around her hostas, ca. 6 in. out from the crown before the leaves unfurl. Does anyone else do this? If so, which tool do you recommend?

Thanks in advance!

Kevin in KC

[Chris_W]

Hi Kevin,

I worked for a lady years ago that had me go around and use this twisting tool to aerate all her flower beds. Personally I thought it just encouraged weeds since it stirred up all the mulch, but I do believe that good aeration is great for hostas. If the soil gets too compact it prevents good growth. Here I just put down fresh mulch each year and avoid walking in the beds more than necessary to weed. The ground is always nice and spongy. But I think if you were to loosen the soil before mulching that would help with the weed issue.

[Schattenfreude]

Thanks for chiming in, Chris. There's nothing spongy about the soil around here, so I'm going to give it a try. I guess I always thought that I'd be damaging the roots, but evidently not. She also uses a water-soluble fertilizer called Jack's Classic. Are you familiar with that?

Kevin in KC

[Chris_W]

I wouldn't get too close to the crowns when you do it. We've used Jack's in the past, and as long as you dilute it more than you might for annuals or vegetables and only use it after a good rain or a good watering it isn't bad. We really don't use it much any longer in the garden and we just use hollytone when planting.