I'd Rather Be Weeding

15 years ago

DH has hauled off four little truckloads of Prunings, and I'm not nearly finished.

Among the shrubs to get haircuts:

Gene Boerner roses, a floribunda that left to its own devices grew 6 feet tall. I cut out one old cane from each bush, which removed the requisite 1/3 and many canes that were crossing others, opening up the middles. Further pruning can come with the first blooms, in the guise of cutting bouquets.

Carefree Delight Rose. This has to have been a tongue-in-cheek name. Great thorny limbs growing every which way, including straight up and horizontally. Even the puppy got caught under this one. I finally just whacked back everything that will grab He-who-mows as he cruises past and left the straight up middles to make a rose tower of a sort. Some metal posts are called for, here.

Boxwoods. Not nearly finished with the first stage of pruning, which includes leaving a facade for viewing from the front while the nekkid backside grows foliage on old overgrown shrubs. I prune a few and move on to some other chores for a while. I cut out an access to the telephone box which DH has to access on occasion to determine if our phone troubles are outside (telephone company's responsibility) or inside. Most of the boxwoods here are more than 35 years old and cannot be parted with until I can't prune any more. I do take liberties to prune some of them into shapes. There's a row of 4 or 5 that have grown tall that I may clip into a topiary of a horse, or a cow, or some indeterminate critter, when I finally reach that spot. There's another row that surround a canopy of wisteria, now in bud. I have to think about that bunch. I've already removed the former arch that was too much of a good thing, reaching for the cedar tree.

Loropetalum. I had to learn the growth pattern of loropetalum. You can't just bob them back, they grow in every direction and limbs criss-cross one another. I am very satisfied with three that I see from my kitchen windows that are now pruned as trees. I pruned out wild limbs that were interfering with the G.B. roses in another bed.

Crape myrtles. The young crape myrtles prune easily, just cut off new growth smaller than a pencil. Old crapes are yet to prune and will need a ladder.

Some plants that died back have been cut back and the dead limbs snipped into short pieces and left to protect plants from the next, inevitable killing frost.

The grapevines must be pruned. I've tried to 'Tom Sawyer' DH into this chore, but he didn't fall for my ruse.

The Azaleas get to wait until late April, after that glorious bloom is over. Some of them are going to be cut to the ground for a makeover.

So, tell us about your pruning adventures.

Nell

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (7)

token28001
15 years ago
I pruned the tops out of the privet I chopped down last spring. They got to about 3' tall and were trying to turn themselves into trees again. So I put a stop to that. I stuck the pruned cuttings into the soil between the plants. I'm hoping to create a hedge that will be the backdrop for my perennial bed.

I shovel pruned a lot of dandelions today too. And I pruned back the butterfly bushes in the perennial bed. Again, I stuck the cuttings into the ground in areas where I want another one to grow. It may be too late for these to root before it gets hot, but it doesn't hurt to try.

And then I pruned a few nanadinas that grow in the backyard. All of them got chopped down last spring as well. They were over 6' tall with just a few sprigs of leaves at the tops. I like it when they look like bushes instead of tiny trees.

I spent more time today hauling mulch than pruning.
little_dani
15 years ago
I am weeding. Well, weed, weed, weed for awhile, then cut, whack, hack for awhile. I have trimmed all the low and down-turned limbs from the senna tree. I have pruned my Dame De Coeur roses, my Carefree Surprise, my Belinda's Dreams, and my KnockOuts. I need to prune the Mutabilis- two of them, and they are each 7'tall, 7'wide. Not to be cut now are the Sombruil, Pinkie, Peggy Martin, and Fourth of July; they are all climbers.

I weeded off and on all day, but finally quit when it got nice and warm this afternoon. I was in some fairly serious St. Augustine that has crept in to feed on the good soil, and decided I would wait for DH to come in. The idea of disturbing a snake that might be warming up didn't appeal to me. If I am going to get bit, I would prefer to do it while somebody is here to help me.

I have cut the Lantanas, the cannas, trimmed the Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow. I left alone the angelonia, the almond verbena, and the cats' whiskers. I have not decided whether to whack the oleanders back now or wait.

Best part of my 'yard work' is that I went to the wholesale nursery yesterday, and came home with a Suburban FULL of plants!

So, I am planting, too.

I think I am beginning to see progress.

Janie
Related Discussions
scaling up...efficiency tricks?
Q
Comments (11)
Thanks, all good comments. I do automate watering, try to plant intensive/successive enough to keep the weeds suppressed, grow vertically, and do some "mock root cellaring", all big time savers. I agree 100%. One thing mentioned that I'm not doing is winter sowing. I spend a lot of time/effort getting starts ready in winter/spring to maximize my season, but perhaps I'll experiment with winter sowing to minimize that. I should also take up the cover crop suggestion as well. I'll have to experiment with how it fits in with my usual winter veggies, but I've heard of several benefits it can bring (soil fertility/structure and weed suppression). I also like the garden work table suggestion. That's been on the todo list for awhile now. Now that my location/layout is getting settled I'll probably also build a small shed so I don't have to keep dragging tools across the property. With those improvements (and what I'm already doing) the remaining main time sink is probably still keeping up on the weeds. Hopefully this will get better as I maintain the growing space, but I know it'll never go away. I'm still leery on mulch though...even with Sluggo. I'm my experience this creates more problems than good. Has anybody else in a similarly wet, slug-infested area had luck with this approach? As far as maximizing production vs. minimizing effort...I guess my goal is a combination of both. When I had a smaller plot I was all about maximizing production regardless of effort (lots of dense succession planting with ready-to-go starts, and frequent weeding to minimize competition). Now that I have a larger area to play with I was thinking I might be able to get away with not working each sqft as intensively. If I open things up too much though, then I'll have more weeds. So it feels like I'm now just stuck intensively gardening 10x more space...which is why I came asking for "industrial"-style tips. Maybe I'm wrong, but I can't imagine that home gardeners with 3-5K sqft are doing things the same way that those with smaller plots are. If anybody has any other "no, you're doing it all wrong" or "the way to scale up is to change your mindset to..." suggestions I'd love to hear them. I'm always up for expanding my bag of tricks. Thanks again for the help. -Rob
...See More
Am I wrong to hate weed cloth?
Q
Comments (23)
You guys are right, the stuff is evil. Pulling it out was easier said than done. I tried to use my prongy hoe to yank it out but it kept ripping into small pieces and I disturbed a lot of shrub roots. What I was able to pull out had grass and weeds growing into it - no moisture under it at all - BONE DRY. It was wrapped skin tight around the base of my birch tree. I used scissors to free it, but most of it is still stuck deep into the soil. The prickly barberry bush wasn't helping matters there. I have a bad neck and was in a lot of pain so I finally had to stop. Hated to leave the job unfinished - didn't even get to the flower gardens. But I realized it was more than I could take on. I'll hire a landscaping company to clean it out. Young guys with healthy necks. Yeah, that's what I'll do. I WILL get it out though. After seeing that no water was getting past it, I can't leave it in. I curse the person who invented this. Ptooey!
...See More
drought
Q
Comments (2)
I hadn't heard that, but wasn't listening for it either :-) I'm really glad I got a huge supply of straw bales last year, so I can mulch everything well. And I am not planning on putting in any new plants this year, other than annuals, so nothing to get established. I'm set. I remember '88. My brother almost went under as well. It was a very tough year for farmers.
...See More
And I'd Rather Have a Root Canal
Q
Comments (11)
Oh no....I meant a month piecing it, not the entire process. When you get to the quilting or tying part, that's something else again. I wish I could say I don't have a desire to do a great number of quilts, but I'd be lying. I want to do almost every one I see and this forum isn't much more than enabling me. LOL. I am learning patience, and it's coooooooooooooooming slowly. I know in my heart that if I had taken up quilting just ten years ago, it would not have stuck. I happened on it through serendipity at the exact moment of my life were I make room in my day, no matter how busy, to go into my little world and work on my quilts. I can't NOT do something with something I don't like. I have to do SOMETHING with it, so the effort wasn't wasted, and that something should not be throwing good money after bad, by obliging myself months more of distasteful work. I do love this quilt, sigh, and that's the problem, it was just that for once, I listened to my little voice who said that I wasn't likely going to finish it. The pillowslips ....well I can see the end of the tunnel almost from the beginning and I'll enjoy them. I just wondered if other people got epiphanies about a quilt and what makes them decide it isn't for them.
...See More
midnightsmum (Z4, ON)
15 years ago
I'd rather be weeding, or pruning, or almost any outside garden chore that could be accomplished without frostbite. OK, OK, it's very nice right now, in the 50's, but the snow does present a problem. Oh well, I need to study for my medical terminology exam tomorrow, anyways!!!

Nancy.
schoolhouse_gw
15 years ago
One row of my boxwood hedge really suffered this winter. I was so sure I had sheared early enough that if it did put out new growth it wouldn't be nipped or burned by the cold temps and winds. It's a tricky business getting the shearing times just right so that you don't do it too early or too late in the season. Looks so ugly right now.
gldno1
15 years ago
I usually wait until later to begin pruning...except for the fruit trees and I need to get to those soon and the three new grape vines.

I did get some manure and straw hauled to the garden a couple of days ago from the milk cow's area.
Eduarda
15 years ago
Pruning in between translation jobs and tight deadlines. Will pruning never end? I really don't like it, must be one of the few gardening chores I do not enjoy. Unfortunately I do have quite a few things that require pruning to look good. Roses to start with, and horror of horrors, my neighbor's wisteria which is covering the fence between us and decides to lean on my side of the planting (read: smothering everything on its way). I have been slowly progressing in this task, pruning the wisteria, photinia, buddleia and roses that grow in that bed.

I'm still a long way from over and then there's the side passage that is infested with ivy (not planted by me) and boasting a rugosa rose that has high hopes of taking over the world. I'm actually *dreading* to think that Spring will soon be here, since I'm not sure whether I'll be able to finish it all before everything starts actively growing...

On the plus side, my poppies are up and I finally managed to find a place to plant a small vitex I grew from seed and which will have hopefully survived Winter (it's a bare stick right now). And did I mention weeding? I need days that are longer than 24 hours long, sigh...

Eduarda
spazzycat_1
15 years ago
We live in a rural area, so there's no pick-up for yard waste. Some we ditch in a big pile in the woods where it will become wood duff eventually. We also collect hardwood prunings into a big pile once a year (the pile is currently 8-10' high) and burn it. The cuttings of the ornamental grasses and less substantial woody stuff go into a separate pile to be run through the chipper shredder and subsequently added to the compost pile.

Over the last few weeks, I've cut back the roses and ornamental grasses. The knockout roses really got taken down because they were so huge. I also have R. 'Carefree Delight' and follow Pam Harper's advise, cutting it back to 1' each winter. The climbing rose on the arbor over the sidewalk only gets a light trim to remove branches that impede the walk-thru.

We have a beautiful Ilex 'Sunny Foster' holly in a foundation planting and it was getting a little too big for its environs, so we took it down by about a third. This was a job for DH as it required climbing to the top of a 20' ladder with various sharp accoutrements.

I also cleaned up the 'Annabelle' hydrangeas. It's still too early to clean up the tender perennials.

I'd Rather Be Weeding

Comments (7)

token28001

little_dani

Related Discussions

midnightsmum (Z4, ON)

schoolhouse_gw

gldno1

Eduarda

spazzycat_1

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US