Just to give another perspective . . . my husband, the one who mows the lawns in our family, doesn't like this kind of edge because he can't mow up to the edge since the wheels of the lawn mower fall into the ditch, and neither of us wants to weed whack the edge. I like a well done cut edge, but I'm not about to start mowing the lawn, so we reached a compromise. I used commercial grade black plastic edging, tucked down deep enough so that it is hidden behind the grass and lined on the inside edge of the garden bed with a single course of brick. It allows him to run the wheels of the lawn mower on the brick and gives me a bit of a masonry edge to slow down any crawlers trying to get into the garden from the "lawn" like clover or various weeds. It looks tidy, though not perhaps as nice as the trench style, and is a compromise we can both live with. We have not had problems with the edging lifting in three years (but we don't have much clay in our soil.) It does require paving brick, not wall brick which will crumble when it freezes.

Here in z:4 some commercial sites have hosta in full sun and they look fine. If you still want hostas I suggest that you look around at some commercial sites and see if they use hosta in full sun and find out what varieties they use. Also local nurseries are good sources for information. I have 'Golden Edger' in full afternoon sun. It is short, 12" and stays in a nice clump, with golden heart shaped leaves. Though it says vigorous grower I have only divided it to get more plants. Have you posted this question in the hosta forum? Perhaps someone in your zone will have suggestions. I would amend the soil before planting.

I gave my husband the trenching job. We gave up on the black rubber edging. Bricks IÂd like but until I start doing it myself, it wonÂt happen. Our main bed is a big raised one with landscape blocks, I think I burned him out on that one 4 years ago. (We didnÂt install the blocks ourselves but did everything else including move and replant all the perennials.) We have been doing the trenched edge for all the other beds. The one problem I have with that is that it seems to get wider each year. I never seem to be there when heÂs doing it, so I donÂt know if this is what normally happens. It seems like to get a clean cut he has to move back a few inches into the lawn. I find myself with a new bare area around the perimeter of each bed, that then I feel needs filling. Considering IÂd already installed edging plants, IÂd rather not. He does the edges twice a year, in between I go in and pull out any grass or weeds that seed or jump in. I just bought a proper half moon edger, before that he used a small shovel. Will that make a difference? Or is it part of what happens with this system, that the bed gets gradually wider?

What works for me is to use different biennial or perennial edgings combos in each bed so I can remember what is planted where and direct a family member to go out to get more of something while I'm in the kitchen. I plant curly parsley with garlic chives and flat leaf parsley with onion chives. I let flat leaf parsley reseed & move seedlings to wear I want them or leave as a groundcover for brassicas. I am not letting curly parsley reseed this 2nd year. What we don't eat I feed to the our rabbits & chickens, so it's used up. To tie the beds together I've planted Calendula, pot marigold and a few pansies. I also sometimes add a few bedding or dwarf dahlias in summer. Slugs are attracted to the pansies & the dahlia so eat them before my lettuces.