THE WORST-CASE SCENARIO GUIDE TO PRUNING

To my knowledge there is no garden task that strikes fear into the heart of gardeners so much as pruning. By my estimation, the two most likely explanations for this are:

1. We've all been scolded and made to feel bad/silly/stupid for pruning incorrectly.
2. We live in perpetual fear of killing plants by pruning incorrectly.

There are rules for pruning. Oh boy are there rules. Start with the hardest: When to prune? There's no doubt that there is a better time to prune to maximize future flowering and keep the shrub or plant looking its best. But how is a gardener supposed to keep track of what to prune when, when everything seems to have its own very specific set of rules?

This is a newer cultivar of Spirea that only gets lightly shaped after blooming, but older varieties can turn into woody, ugly behemoths if not pruned at all. 

Then there is the question of how much we're supposed to be pruning, and how should we physically prune?

Most of the answers aren't that hard to remember:

WHEN: Spring-blooming shrubs generally set their flowers on "old wood," aka the previous year's growth, so if you prune anytime between late summer and early the following spring, you'll be cutting of the flower buds. Summer- and fall-blooming shrubs can be cut back in very late winter or very early spring (in my zone 5 garden this typically involves walking through a bit of snow). It's generally safe to prune right after flowering, but on something like Virburnums, you would be cutting off the branches where beautiful berries will form.

HOW MUCH: The general rule of thumb is to not prune more than 25 percent of a shrub or tree's growth in a year. Some push that to 33 percent, but I err on the side of a quarter.

HOW: To keep it simple, you at least want to prune back to something, usually a branch but maybe a leaf node at least. Often you may want to consider something called rejuvenation pruning, where you remove some of the oldest branches/stems all the way to the ground.

Of course there are finer points that go well beyond these. As gardeners get more into gardening, as is usually the case, these details become second nature. But in the meantime I feel like the gardeners who know those details are doing a good job of scaring the pants off new gardeners who may quickly decide that gardening is too complicated and they don't have time or space in their brain for such details. And that's sad, because while it is certainly better to have intimate knowledge of how and when to prune every plant we grow, the world will not end if you don't.

In other words, let's stop spreading the fear of pruning.

In fact, while some people may tell you that you MUST prune at a certain time, I'd like to challenge that idea. And by the way, I'm not alone. Christopher Lloyd, the late, great British gardener who did much to influence how we think of gardens today at his Great Dixter, has said that the best time to prune is when you have the tools in your hand and you think of it.

"The wrong time may be the only opportunity and a preferable alternative to not doing something at all," he wrote in The Adventurous Gardener. "Or it may not be the wrong time, contrary to accepted practice as quoted in gardening literature, if you act cannily. It's all very well to accept received advice and opinions gratefully and at face value when you're starting, but we graduate. You'll make mistakes but you'll perhaps learn not to mind making them. That's a great release from all sorts of inhibitions."

In other words, it's far better to prune at the wrong time than it is to not prune at all, which is a far more common and possibly egregious crime against horticulture. (Exception: There are many shrubs, that, when planted in an appropriate location can and should be allowed to live their lives with little to no pruning, short of removing dead wood.)

I planted this Viburnum plicatum 'Mariesii' in an area where it will be allowed to grow to its full size, maybe 10 feet tall and wide or more, so I will never need to prune it for size. 

Sometimes, when considering doing something in life that I'm not entirely comfortable with, I think, "What's the worst that could happen?"

And I believe that might be a good approach to pruning as well. If you have the time and the tools handy, what's the worst that could happen if you prune a shrub at a less than optimal time? And in most cases the answer is that you'd negatively affect its next flowering period. So is that so terrible? Well, it probably is if it's the shrub around which you planned your entire garden, or if you have a garden wedding planned specifically for when a particular shrub blooms.

Hydrangeas, perhaps more than any other shrub, strike fear into the hearts of gardeners when it comes time for pruning. This is Hydrangea panniculata Limelight, which blooms on new wood at the ends of branches. I cut it back somewhat hard (some years more than others) in late winter, and in recent years have taken out the oldest stem all the way to the base to encourage new growth. What's the worst that would happen if I didn't prune it that way? If I failed to prune it all it would still flower, but it would get to its full size, 8 or more feet tall and eventually dead wood, if not removed, would sully its appearance. If I pruned at the wrong time, I would probably get later, fewer and smaller flowers (if pruned well into spring) or maybe nothing different would happen if I pruned in fall instead of winter.

To me, the worst-case scenario of something that could happen to a shrub is that you'd kill it, and providing that you follow the other two rules (particularly the one about how much to prune), it's unlikely you'll do that.

Now think about the worst-case scenario if, year after year, you forget to prune a shrub when you are supposed to and never touch it because you don't want to prune at the wrong time. You may end up with an overgrown shrub that outgrows its location and is so badly shaped that it can't be salvaged. And then you end up taking it out, probably after several years of looking at a pretty ugly shrub. In effect, you make the decision to end it's life.

The point is this: No one wants to reduce flowering accidentally, but I think it's time we stop acting like pruning at the wrong time is one of the seven deadly sins. Not to mention, Lloyd's point about making mistakes is a good one: Sometimes it's the best way to learn in the garden.

Rather, I'd counsel gardeners to check a good gardening reference book or even Google (add .edu to the end of your search and you're more likely to quickly get to more reliable information) for pruning information for their specific plant if they know what it is. But if you don't and you have the tools in your hand and you know it's likely the only time you'll have for the job, go for it.

What's the worst that can happen?

5 GARDEN TASKS TO DO NOW

It's more or less the middle of the gardening season here in my zone 5 garden. It's the point at which some areas of the garden are cruising along and others, neglected still, are looking worse than ever. They'll be dealt with when time, temperature and the mosquito population allows. The urge is to sit back, relax and enjoy the garden.

And you should, but don't rest on your gardening laurels for too long as suddenly the good parts of the garden will start to look like the neglected bits.

So in the spirit of doing a little something in the garden—but not too much—here are five things you can do in your garden now.

1. DEADHEAD

Stay on top of the deadheading or else the flowers that just faded may be your last. In my garden right now I'm mostly going after spent roses (cut back to a set of five leaves) and just starting to keep a close eye on the dahlias. Here's a quick video I did on deadheading dahlias if you're not sure how.

2. SPOT WEED

If you've gotten all the big weeding out of the way, you'll just have to worry about the little guys that poke up. Oxalis is a common one in my garden. The good news about this kind of weeding is that you can usually do it with just your fingers and you can definitely do it one handed, leaving the other one free to hold a cup of coffee, a glass of wine or a gin and tonic.

3. WATER

It's a drag, I know, but this is high season for watering. The good news is that watering can be kind of cathartic, so consider it a bit of a mental break. Don't forget to fertilize containers regularly. Even if you added time release fertilizer when you planted, most container plants are getting big enough by this point in the year that they need more nourishment.

This Spirea is still looking pretty good but about half the blooms are spent  and it's time to prune. Cutting it back deadheads it and allows me to shape it for next year. 

4. PRUNE

For a lot of shrubs, the time to prune is right after the flower. Many shrubs bloom on the previous year's growth, so pruning right after they finish blooming allows time for them to put on new growth and next year's flower buds.  I've pruned most of my Spireas in the past couple weeks to keep them a little in check without sacrificing next year's flowers.

5. MAKE MENTAL NOTES

Odds are your garden is nearing its peak. If something isn't looking just right, make a note about what you could change for the long term to get it there.

Check off that list and then get back to that first thing we talked about: sitting back and enjoying your garden. You deserve it.

FRIDAY FINDS

So, it's April 1, aka April Fool's Day. Be warned, folks, the Internet is full of bad jokes that people are falling for left and right.

But I hereby proclaim this space to be April Fool's joke free. Read with confidence.

In all seriousness, I'm really excited that we've made it to April. Gardening gets real in April.

So let's get into a few garden-related Friday Finds (plus a couple non-garden-related items).

Affiliate links may be used

I've written before about my quest for decent watering tools here and here, and for the most part, I've been happy with my Dramm waterbreaker (the all-metal one) on a longer extension. There are still the occasional dribbles, but it's not horrible, but sometimes the water comes out a little more aggressively than I would like, and turning down the water pressure just makes it come out in a stream, not a shower. This Haws brass watering wand caught my attention though. Not only is it beautiful, but I have a Haws watering can with that same end on it and it provides a nice, soft shower. It's pricey, that's for sure, but the thing is solid brass and from a brand name I admire so I feel like it's an investment that's worth making.

Gardenista did an article on watering wands this week as well.

I am always looking for new and interesting options for cabinet hardware and there were some great sources in this article.

This brass folding chalkboard is so. damn. good. I don't know what I'd do with it or where I'd put it, but I know the world is a better place because that's in it.

My friend Eric at GardenFork did a nice video on how to prune an apple tree. As with all his videos there are excellent video bombs by cute Labradors.

I faithfully voted in Shrub Madness every day, and as is the case every year, I did a horrible job picking winners in this bracket-based competition. I did have 'At Last' rose, which won handily, getting to the floral four, but I had picked 'Gatsby Pink' hydrangea to win it all. I'm happy that something other than a hydrangea won this year, and I'm intrigued by this rose, which is disease resistant and low maintenance like the Oso Easy roses that I'm very fond of, but it has fragrance, which is the bit that's missing from those other varieties. It's only available through White Flower Farm this year, but if it's all it's cracked up to be, this one could be a game changer.

I broke down and ordered Patina Farm by Brooke and Steve Giannetti last night. I love their landscape so much and even though there are a lot of photos floating around online, I thought having that book around would be a great inspiration. I love Brooke's blog Velvet and Linen. You can see a little preview of the book over on Loi's blog.

Speaking of ordering things, I saw a story about how online shopping goes through the roof on Friday nights (Saturday mornings) after 2 a.m. The theory is that people are "sipping and clicking." In other words, they get a little buzzed up and start shopping with reckless abandon. I can't say I've online shopped while drunk, but I have absolutely bought things at 2 a.m. that I had no business buying, and I think I was half asleep. I've done the same thing first thing in the morning. I now try not to shop online between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m., although I broke that rule with the book last night.

That's it for this Friday. Have a great weekend, everyone. What are you up to this first April weekend?

10 SPRING JOBS TO GET YOUR GARDEN IN GEAR

I love a good to-do list.

For the most part, April is the first real opportunity to get back in the garden in this area and although this week is cold and wet, soon it'll be time to clean up the yard. So in honor of tomorrow being April and my love of to-do lists, here's a list of some spring cleanup chores.

Affiliate links may be used.

1. CUT BACK PERENNIALS

Be careful when cutting back perennials left standing for winter. You don't want to damage new growth like on this sedum.

 Anything that wasn't cut back in fall should be taken care of now. For plants with stiff stems, such as echinacea, they will often just pull straight out. Other plants with lots of foliage, such as pulmonaria and lady's mantel, just sort of collapse over winter so I lift up the leaves and chop them back as close to the crown as I dare, being careful to look for new growth. Grasses are another plant to be careful when cutting back. If you cut off any new growth when cutting off the dead bits, you'll have grasses without tips, so a little caution is in order.

This hakonechloa is due to be cut back. I'll be careful to check for any new shoots that may be hiding under that mop and not cut them off. 

2. PRUNE CLEMATIS
Since my current clematis count is somewhere in the mid 20s, this isn't a small task for me, but more and more, I've been planting group 3 clematis that simple need to be cut back to a couple buds above the ground. In that case the bigger issue is trying to remember where they are all planted. Group 2 clematis, often the large-flowering varieties,  require a different treatment. I follow a rule of thirds with Group 2s, leaving one third of the stems untouched, lightly pruning another third of the stems and trimming the last third of stems almost to ground. I also take the opportunity to rearrange the stems, usually cutting off the twining bits and reattaching them with ties to whatever support they grow up. I only have one Group 1 clematis, and these are generally not pruned. Because it is a good grower and I'm afraid it may eat my new magnolia tree, I prune it lightly right after flowering, which is very early in the season. If you don't need to contain the growth, then you needn't prune them other than to remove dead bits.

'Guernsey Cream' may be my favorite clematis. It's a Group 2 so I use a rule-of-thirds approach to pruning it in spring.

If you don't know what kind of clematis you have, don't prune it at all. All of them will be OK without any pruning, at least for a year, it's just that the blooms may be much higher than you'd like and the vine may be a bit tangled. Try to identify what kind it is when it blooms so you know what to do next year. Several years of not pruning will lead to an unsightly clematis.

The exception to this is with new clematis that were planted last year. Regardless of what group they are, I think it's best to cut these back like Group 3s, which allows the plant to put more energy into the roots rather than producing flowers. You'll sacrifice some of this year's show, but it will be worth it for the long-term health of the vine.

I also fertilize my clematis when I do my spring pruning. I use Espoma Rose-Tone, and just use a small amount around the roots, watering it in well.


3. PRUNE (SOME) HYDRANGEAS
I already pruned the big Hydrangea paniculata 'Limelight' in my yard and I should have done the others a month ago, but there's still time. This hydrangea puts on amazing amounts of growth, so you can prune it back to 1 to 3 feet and it'll be beautiful and big. If you'd like it larger, prune less.

Last year I didn't cut the Limelights by the deck back by much because they were relatively new shrubs (the before and after follows), but this year I'll cut them back a little more severely. They have grown enough that they flower above the deck handrail now.

Before pruning

After pruning

For the so-called smooth hydrangeas in my yard—Hydrangea arborescens including 'Incrediball,' 'Annabelle' and 'Invicibelle Spirit'—I prune them back nearly to the ground. This excellent pruning guide from Proven Winners recommends leaving some stems as a framework, but I rarely do that.

Bigleaf hydrangea (Hydrangea macrophylla), lacecaps (Hydrangea serrata) and oakleafs (Hydrangea quercifolia) shouldn't be pruned at this time of year, with the exception of removing dead stems, which can and should be done any time of the year.


4. CLEAN OUT THE GARDEN
Leaves that fall in autumn can create big mats in the garden that can make it difficult for plants to emerge. I like to clean up the garden, clearing the way for plants to grow and allowing me to keep a close eye on what is growing. It's easy to spot small weeds when they can't hide under leftover fall detritus. The problem, of course, is that perennials are shooting up all over the place and it's easy to crush new shoots inadvertently when you're standing in the garden to rake it out.

From string trimmer to chainsaw-on-a-stick to high-powered blower (attachment below). Makes spring cleanup much easier!

I like to use a leaf blower for this job because you can't damage young plants and you can clean out areas deep in the garden without having to step in it. You may recall that last fall I tested the Troy-Bilt TB60044 Straight Shaft String Trimmer with the JumpStart engine starter (which gets my vote for invention of the decade). I loved the fact that you can easily swap out a variety of attachments for it and it just so happens that there is also a blower attachment for their TrimmerPlus line, so that is perfect for this job.  I'll be testing out a new Troy-Bilt leaf blower soon that is battery powered and full of cool technology so I can't wait to tell you what I think about it.


5. PULL WEEDS

See that little bugger? That is baby garlic mustard weed and it's already popping up all over the place here. I'm trying to pull it anywhere I find it to get ahead of this garden thug. 

It is amazing to me how many weeds are already thriving in the garden. It's a never-ending fight, but dig out what you can now to make for less work later.


6. GIVE THE LAWN ITS FIRST CUT
When the lawn starts growing, which is will very soon, a first cut will make everything look better. A mulching mower will also clean up all of the other bits and pieces left laying around on it, and it will set the stage for a healthy lawn for the rest of the summer. Just make sure to keep the blades nice and high.


7. PLANT EARLY SEASON CROPS

Sugar snap peas started inside and transplanted into the garden.

Peas, kale, spinach and lettuce are all cool season crops that will withstand plenty of cold weather so an early sowing can get you eating vegetables from your own garden early on.


8. WORK ON YOUR COMPOST

A shot of my compost thermometer last spring, when my pile topped out at 140 degrees! I was so proud and now there's a new standard set that I'll have to meet this spring.

My compost pile goes pretty much dormant in winter but as soon as it thaws out I get out there and start stirring. I'll add the material I clean out of the garden and if it needs a kick of nitrogen-rich material, which is not uncommon after all the carbon-rich leaves and garden waste I threw in there in fall, I add a 5-gallon bucket full of rehydrated alfalfa cubes, which is a great source of "greens" for the compost pile. That usually gets everything cooking again and so long as I stay on top of the stirring and watering if necessary, my pile will be hot by the end of May and I'll be making finished compost quickly.


9. EDGE YOUR GARDEN BEDS
I say this all the time, but I know of no other garden chore that makes your garden look pulled together more than edging beds. A crisp edge will make you look past all manner of garden sins, and if you get a good edge early in the season, all you'll need later is a few touch-ups here and there.


10. MULCH. OR NOT.

I know of no other aspect of gardening that is as controversial as mulching. Whether to mulch, what to mulch with and when to mulch will probably be debated by gardeners until the end of time. The most important of these questions, I think, is what to mulch with. It must be an organic material (that is, no ground up rubber, please), it should break down quickly and you should be careful where you source it from.

I like to mulch with compost, leaf mold or pine bark fines, none of which are particular easy to find in mass quantities. I don't care for large chunks of wood and certainly not dyed wood chips. But this year, I may not mulch at all. Invasive so-called jumping worms have come to our area (they are gross and horribly damaging and more than a little scary and I'll tell you all about them soon), and the DNR is still trying to get a handle on making recommendations on managing them. One of the main sources that could bring them into the garden is eggs in mulch, so I'm very wary about bringing mulch into my garden right now. (By the way, they've also been found in many other states.)

If I do mulch, I will probably use mulched leaves from my yard and my neighbor's yard that have been rotting down for a year or more.

I always learned that if you are going to mulch, you should let your soil warm up first, but there is also a benefit to applying mulch before many weeds have a chance to get going. One thing is for sure: If you are going to mulch, be selective in your sources and keep it away from the base of plants.


AND ONE DON'T
At this time of year, you can probably do more harm than good trudging around your garden. Stepping on emerging perennials is no good and even worse, compacting the soil is really bad. So even though I've just given you a list of a lot of thing that require stepping in the garden, try to limit the traffic there. If you can use a board to distribute your weight when you step in prune something, that will help. It's also not great to dig in wet soil as it can damage the soil structure. So don't get ahead of yourself. Your garden will thank you.

What's your favorite spring garden chore, or the one you hate the most?


This post was sponsored by Troy-Bilt, which compensates me to be part of its Saturday6 blogging team. Of course all opinions are my own!

FRIDAY FINDS + A PEEK AT AUSTIN

It's Friday Finds time, but first I wanted to share a couple pictures from my trip to Austin with Troy-Bilt's Saturday6 gang last week. Troy-Bilt sent the Saturday6, a group of bloggers who work with them, on a shindig to find out about some new products, explore Austin and do a little good. (Disclaimer: They paid for this trip as part of my Saturday6 contract, but I'm sharing pictures with you just because.)

We took a tour of the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center and although we were about three weeks too early in terms of the blooms putting on a show, it was a pretty fascinating place.

The entry kiosk is entirely self-sufficient. Solar panels on the awning provide all the power, including for air conditioning, which they are able to do because it has a green roof that keeps it significantly cooler than a normal roof would.

For several years, a great-horned owl has returned to the center to nest and raise her young.  She's in the corner in the photo below.

See her head peeking up?

The Texas mountain laurels were blooming.

And the bluebonnets (Lupinus texenis) were just starting to come to life in warmer areas of the garden.

They had very interesting ideas for creating raised and tiered beds.

Unfortunately I can't recall what this plant is, but I loved the combination of blue foliage and orange flowers.

We also spent a day working at a community garden project along with Planet in Action. This was a nice area that sort of fell into disrepair a few years ago, so we, along with Planet in Action, a few county parks employees and a group of very enthusiastic Americorps volunteers (who did a lot of push-ups throughout the day), created some large raised beds, planted grapes and new fruit trees and pruned existing fruit trees that hadn't been touched in a long time.

Raised beds planted and mulched.

This was an example of one of the pear trees we pruned. Everyone sort of divided up and Eric from GardenFork and Kenny from Veggie Gardening Tips and I seemed to end up on pruning duty. It was fun to group prune. Gardening can be such a solitary activity, but we had all had a nice chat while pruning and it was nice to bat around pruning ideas amongst each other. These trees hadn't been pruned in over five years and we had to constantly remind ourselves that you can't undo five years of unchecked growth in one day.

Before pruning.

And here's what it looked like after.

After pruning.

 This next photo is also an after shot although you'd probably not believe that because you can see there's still quite a tangle in there. We were wary of taking out too much of the tree at once (the general rule is no more than 25% of the growth, not counting dead wood), and we had to prioritize the worst offenders. I lobbied hard to take out that older crossing branch that you see in the front of that picture, but was overruled, because it would have left a huge hole in the canopy of the tree. It can and, I'm sure, will be taken out next year.

It was great to get in the garden again and it was nice to help out such a worthwhile project. My fellow bloggers must have felt the same way because we ripped through that project list much more quickly than I think anyone expected us to.

Rochelle and an Americorps volunteer tackle a giant pile of mulch.

 So that was Austin. Now onto what's been good on the Internet this week.

I don't care for corned beef, but plenty of people wouldn't be without it this time of year. Here's what I can only assume is a great recipe for it.

I really enjoyed Matt Mattus's behind-the-scenes look at how the cover of the latest Pith + Vigor came together.

 I love this DIY table.

I'm completely giddy about Michelle Obama's latest initiative.

 Heather is offering up some great March gardening tips to get you going.

That's it for this week. I'm off to the Chicago Flower and Garden Show tomorrow. I'm very excited as I've never been to that one before. I also have some homework to do this weekend. I'm taking an advanced master gardener course on landscape design and one of our first projects is to design a garden for a fictional hospital courtyard. Our designs will be analyzed by professors and students in the landscape architecture program at the University of Wisconsin so I'm alternately excited for real, unbiased feedback and more than a little nervous.

What's on your docket for the weekend?

REVIVAL OF A GARDENER'S SOUL

This weekend was one of those amazing gifts that Mother Nature throws our way every once in a while that revive the sleeping soul of a gardener. Saturday was in the 50s and we set a record on Sunday with temps in the low 60s. This is pretty much unheard of for Wisconsin in February.

Check it out: Signs of life!

The snow is melted in all but the lowest, shadiest spots where it was piled up. My earliest daffodil is poking its head up, and when I pulled back the leaves on the hellebores, fat buds were standing tall. Little green shoots are coming up where I think I planted some snowdrops (I'm never label that stuff) and birds were singing all weekend long.

After attending a garden seminar Saturday morning (a lovely presentation on fragrant gardens by Mark Dwyer, director of horticulture at the fabulous Rotary Botanical Gardens in Janesville, Wisconsin), I enjoyed just poking around outside. The yard is in a typically disasterous state. There are plants that weren't cut down in fall to be dealt with, huge piles of leaves and all sorts of other messes. But I know well that it's too early to be doing a big spring cleanup. In fact, we're due for more snow Monday night into Tuesday and frigid temperatures are certainly in the realm of possibility.

The stem I really wanted to take out was the one farthest to the right in this photo, but that would have left the shrub hopelessly unbalances. Instead I took out the one sticking out at an odd angle on the left, leaving three large main stems. 

I did break down and prune the big Limelight hydrangea. It felt good to get something real accomplished. As I've been doing for the past few years, I pruned out one of the oldest stems all the way to the ground, and then just did some light pruning around the top, focusing on crossing branches and shape. There is a large stem in the back that I would have liked to take out, as there is no growth at all on it until about three feet up, but removing it would have left the shrub seriously out of balance. There are lots of new shoots near it where I took out a big branch last year, so I'll give those some time to develop before I take that big guy out of there.

It felt early to me, but looking back, I see I did it in early March last year. The difference being that I had to walk through a lot of snow then.

I also spent some time organizing my abundance of seeds. It is safe to say I have completely gone off the rails this year as far as seed starting goes. I have way too much. I'm going to try to restrain myself from starting too much of any one thing so I have room. I also worked on updating my seed starting spreadsheet for this year to adjust dates based on my experience last year and add in the new varieties I'll be trying. In doing so, I realized that technically I should have been starting sweet peas this weekend. In addition to not being set up at all for that, I'll be out of town later this week and I like to be able to keep daily watch on seedlings, especially something like sweet peas that I'm highly emotionally invested in. So the first seed sowing will happen next weekend.

And, because it was just way too nice outside to spend one more minute inside, I grabbed all my garden tools and took them to the sunny spot on the front patio and gave them all the cleaning and sharpening I should have done back in December. I washed all the dirt off the handles and gave the wood handled tools a light coat of linseed oil, and then shined up all the blades and sharpened them all, and gave them little touch of light oil. I even went so far as to completely take apart my Bahco pruners to really get in there and get all the dirt out and then sharpen them up and oil the mechanics. It is so nice to have everything ready to go the moment it's time.

GET OUT IN THE GARDEN AND GET PRUNING

It might have been 15 degrees last weekend but I was bound and determined to garden, and garden I did. I actually had a very legitimate reason to garden: hydrangea pruning time.

I love hydrangeas and have a lot of them, but the only kind I've added in the last seven years or so are either so-called smooth hydrangeas (Hydrangea arborescens) or hardy hydrangeas (Hydrangea paniculata). After years of disappointment with  big-leaf hydrangeas that didn't bloom (the plant might be hardy but the buds, which are set on last season's growth, rarely are for me), I have pretty much given up on those.

And for arborescens and paniculatas, late winter is the time to prune. I'm in zone 5 so that's right about now. If you are in a lower zone you might need to wait a little bit and if you're in a warmer zone, you probably want to get on with it if you haven't pruned already. The key is that you want to prune when the plant is dormant.

The arborescens I have are 'Annabelle', Incrediball and Invincible Spirit and these couldn't be easier to prune. I just chop them back to 6 to 12 inches from the ground. They bloom on new wood and cutting them back will keep them a little shorter and therefore less floppy. But don't be fooled into thinking that cutting these hydrangeas back will make them small. My Incrediballs that flank the deck stairs were well over 5 feet tall last summer.

With the paniculatas, you're mostly pruning to control the size. These also bloom on new wood and there is an effect to pruning, other than the size of the plant. When you prune, you'll get more flowers but they will be smaller. If you don't prune, you'll get slightly few flowers but they will be larger. To me, it all evens out in the end so I don't worry too much about it but some people might be partial to one look or the other.

Before: The Limelight hydrangeas along the deck are planted downhill, so when I pruned them, my goal was to level the tops. On the right is an Incrediball that I pruned to about a foot and in front of the Limelights is a Little Lime that also got a little sprucing up.

After: The Limelights have been pruned to be more or less level. Even if I wasn't planning to prune them, I would have gone in and removed the old flowerheads because they may not fall off by themselves and can look ratty if they are still there when the new flowers bloom.

My paniculatas are all either Limelight or Little Lime. This year I started with the three Limelights that I grow along the deck. This is the first year that I've pruned them and one of my goals with pruning was the even them out. The ground falls away in that area, the one farthest north is considerable lower than the one on the south end. But these are most often viewed from on top of the deck, where they sort of peek up, and it's odd to not have them even. So when I pruned, I lined up the top of them with the trim on the deck skirting, aiming to have them level on top.

There's a branch that is crossing twice and needs to be removed. Crossing branches are bad because they can rub against each other and open the wood, making it susceptible to disease.

But before I start taking off top growth, I always start with crossing branches. These are never good to have in any shrub or tree, so if I spot a crossing branch, I immediately cut that out. If I were pruning anything else, the next thing I'd do would be to look for dead wood, but I've never found any in a Limelight hydrangea. Once I got rid of the crossing branches, I started reducing the overall size of the plant, always cutting back to a leaf bud, which looks like a little swelling on a branch.

Because I was trying to make the three hydrangeas level, the one on the south end got a much more severe pruning than the other two. It will be interesting to watch if there is any difference between the three because of that.

I followed the same procedure for the Little Lime hydrangeas, making sure to take out any branches that were sticking out at odd angles. I sort of like to see the branches end up in a V shape when I'm finished.

The one hydrangea that I've not yet pruned is the giant Limelight in the main garden. I'm looking to take out some of the oldest stems in the middle of that one to keep it nice and open, but there is so much snow piled up at its base that I can't get the pruning saw in there. Temperatures are supposed to increase this weekend though, so I'm hoping it will melt enough to go at that one.

When the ground is thawed, I'll give all of the hydrangeas a bit of organic fertilizer and a shovelful of compost to get them going on the right foot. Beyond that, they won't require any maintenance until next spring when I'm once again trudging through the snow, anxious to get on with the first gardening job of the year.

MY FAVORITE TOOLS (PART 2: PRUNING & RAKES)

Yesterday, in the first part of My Favorite Tools, I covered what I consider to be my four essential tools; the ones I reach for almost every time I garden. Today I'm going to get a bit more specific and show you what I use for specific jobs.

The first is pruning and cutting. Yesterday I showed you the most expensive gardening tool I own (my Sneeboer Ladies Spade) and mentioned that I thought it was worth the expense because it's a high-quality tool that I think will last my lifetime. So it's clear that I don't mind paying more for quality when it's called for. But sometimes I like to straddle the line of getting a good tool without spending a lot. I'm sure there are better pruning and cutting tools out there, but I don't feel like I use them often enough to justify spending more.

And here's a little secret: Sometimes I accidentally leave my tools laying right where I left them. Often for days, and possibly for weeks.

I try very hard not to do that, but I have rusted loppers beyond practical use in the past because I lost them in a pile of trimmings. And that's why I don't buy very expensive loppers anymore.

The first two tools in my pruning and cutting arsenal—my Bahco pruners and my A.M. Leonard Deluxe Soil Knife—were covered yesterday. The rest of them all happen to be Fiskars, which seems to strike the right balance of quality and affordability and has the added advantage of being easy to find in stores.

3. FISKARS POWERGEAR LOPPER

I won these from a giveaway on another blog and I have to say, I really like these loppers. They are shorter in the handle (which I like because I feel it gives me more control) and ratcheted, so they have extra cutting power. If I can fit in the jaws (I'd say they open to allow about a 1.25-inch branch), it will cut it and they've never failed me yet. They are also extremely light, which is maybe not necessary but awfully nice.

4. FISKARS HEDGE SHEARS

I use these for rough pruning of things like my meatball boxwoods as well as cutting back ornamental grasses and mass quantities of perennials in fall or winter. They seem to keep a pretty good edge and they haven't done anything to make me not like them, so they work for me.

5. FISKARS FOLDING SAW

I got this folding saw this year to manage some branches that wouldn't fit in my loppers or were at an odd angle that couldn't be reached with a larger tool. I've only used it a couple times, including when I dug a hole for a new tree and had to cut away some old roots intruding in the hole. That didn't do the blade any favors, but that's sort of the beauty of having a $10 tool; it's not the end of the world if you have to do something that dulls the blade.

I don't really love them. The blade seems really floppy to me, which makes it hard to cut with, but then again I'm not the most practiced saw user in the world either. I don't think I'd buy them again, but I also wouldn't spend a ton of money on a tool like this (see aforementioned cutting of underground roots).


I haven't counted, but I'll bet I have six rakes in the garage. That's ridiculous and there is no need for them. At all. I have a plastic lawn rake for leaves (not included here) and then these three that I use in the actual garden.

1. GROUNDHOG ROUND RAKE

I can't tell you why the shape of rake matters, but for whatever reason, this rake is great for spreading material. It works wonders on bark mulch, smoothing it easily and distributing it evenly. It also works for spreading out soil amendments like compost and manure, although it doesn't get a surface perfectly level. It also has a lightweight aluminum handle, which I really appreciate.

2. METAL RAKE

This came from a big box store and there is nothing special about it, but it's still the best tool in the shed for evening out the soil. We'll be filling in around the driveway with topsoil and reseeding soon and this will be our most used tool for that. I like to use the tines for sort of rough work and then flip it over and lightly use the flat back for a super smooth finish if that's what I'm going for.

3. ADJUSTABLE RAKE

The only thing that's special about this metal-tined rake is that it is adjustable so it can be as narrow or wide as you need it. That is particularly helpful for raking leaves out of beds around plants. When it's fully extended, the tines are pretty flexible so I find that it is far less damaging to the crowns of plants you might hit with it than your typical plastic lawn rake is.

It's time to prune! Oh wait, maybe not.

Don't forget, dear readers, that late winter is the best time to prune many shrubs (but not anything that blooms in spring).

I can't wait to do a bit of pruning for health, shape and size in my yard.

First off, that is not a black and white photo. Isn't that sad? The whole world is still shades of gray now. Even the sight of a brown lawn would be welcome at this point.

Secondly, you can see that unless I plan on digging out the shrubs prior to pruning them, there will be no pruning anytime soon.

One of the shrubs that gets pruned every year just to control its size is this Limelight hydrangea. It's a give and take, though. A good pruning (remember the year I cut it all back?) helps keep the size in check (by the way, the better option here would have been to plant a shrub whose mature size was more appropriate for the location but at the time I had no idea that a Limelight in a sunny spot would grow quite so much) but reduces the amount of flowers you'll have that year.

I won't do anything so drastic to it this year, but I will try to follow the one-third rule. I'll take out no more (and probably less) of the oldest branches and do a small amount of pruning individual branches for shape as well as cutting it's height back by about a one-third.

I will do the same thing for most of the other hydrangeas I have which fall under the panicle (Limelights, Little Limes) type or the smooth (Incrediball, Invicibelle and Annabelle) type. The exception will be my old Annabelle on the northwest corner of the house which is generally a mess. That will cut cut back to about 18 inches because it needs a complete reboot after years of no pruning.

If you need more guidance on pruning hydrangeas (or when to prune other types of shrubs), check out Proven Winners pruning guide.

The other plants that are in serious need of pruning this year are my Oso Easy roses. I love these roses. Well, I love all roses, but I've had a difficult time with most of them. These Oso Easy roses (which I've found to be superior to the Knock Out roses) grow and flower like crazy. And they got way too crazy last year. By the end of summer they were huge (and still blooming) but had lost all sense of shape and the occasional thorny branch would reach out and try to grab passersby.

Those will wait until spring for their pruning, when I can clearly tell where there is dead wood that needs to be removed.

It's sort of a sad world when I'm so desperate to garden that I actually look forward to pruning, isn't it?

So what's it like where you are? Can you even find your garden yet?

Garden tasks to pass the time

First of all, if you're finding this blog from Young House Love, welcome! I'm thrilled you popped over to see the blog and I hope you enjoy it. I tend to jump around topic-wise, ranging from renovations (currently we're working on our kitchen) to gardening to DIY projects. If you like what you see, you might want to consider getting posts by e-mail, which you can sign up for just over there ----> to the right.

I was surprised and so honored that John and Sherry from the fabulous Young House Love blog (and New York Times bestselling book) featured our house renovation on their blog yesterday. I loved reading people's comments about it and I'm happy that some people found a little inspiration in it.

I know I'm not the only frustrated gardener out there chomping at the bit for spring. Winter is hanging on a bit long in many parts of the country. So to help us all out of our funk, I thought I'd share a few things you can do now to get ready for gardening. Some of these things depend a bit on what part of the country you're in, but up here in zone 5b we're among the last for spring to show up so there's a good bet that you should be on this schedule or ahead of it.

Prune SOME shrubs 
The some is key here. You do not want to prune spring blooming shrubs now because they have already set their buds and you will cut off your flowers. The key is finding out if a shrub blooms on "new wood" (stems that grow this year) or "old wood" (stems from last year or before). Some of my favorite hydrangeas like 'Limelight' can be pruned to whatever degree is necessary. They don't need to be pruned though (other than removing dead wood). I should have pruned my Limelights in late February or early March but I just never did. This weekend I'll put on my boots and stomp through some snow to do a light pruning (nothing like I did a few years ago). The less you prune, the bigger the flowers will be, so keep that in mind. I will just prune the big Limelight by about a third just to keep it in check size-wise. The new Limelights along the deck will just be slightly pruned to shape them a little as they are still growing.

Have no fear, just a few months after pruning, 'Limelight' will be looking like this.

The other shrub that is going to get a good pruning is the purple smoke bush (Cotinus coggygria), which I'm embarrassed to say I have never pruned. It was obvious last year that it was all out shape and badly in need of a good prune job. Like most plants that I'm not familiar with the pruning requirements of I did a little research and it turns out that April is the time for pruning them in my zone. Most advice seems to recommend a pretty hefty pruning (down to a foot or 18 inches) for smoke bushes (this is for smoke bushes that are being grown as shrubs, not trained into a tree form). I know it's tough to do that to a big shrub, but it will recover in no time. The year that you prune, however, you will have no flowers (the "smoke") so you will have to sacrifice those. That's OK by me as I'm really interested in the foliage.

The purple foliage of a smoke bush with the pink bloom of clematis 'Princess Diana', which grows up its branches in my garden.

Get that compost pile cooking again
Although I add kitchen scraps to the compost pile all winter, I do let it go dormant during winter. I just bought a compost thermometer (I am oddly excited about this purchase) and found that my pile is currently 32 degrees. I don't think anything is decomposing at that temperature.

As soon as it is workable (and, um, not covered in snow), I will start stirring the pile, adding water if it is too dry. Because I put a lot of well chopped up leaves and yard waste in the pile during our fall cleanup the pile always comes into spring a bit heavy on the "browns" (high in carbon). I kick-start in spring by adding well moistened alfalfa cubes. Alfalfa is very high in nitrogen so really balances things out and getting things decomposing again. I buy a bag of alfalfa cubes at the feed store about once every three years and soak them well in a five-gallon bucket so they break down a bit. Then I pour them into the compost, stir well and within a few days I usually have steam rising from the pile. There is something so incredibly satisfying about making the best thing for your garden. My problem is that there is never, ever enough compost.

Plan your vegetable garden
Ideally you will grab a piece of graph paper to do this, but I'll be honest and tell you that I usually end up doing it on a piece of scratch paper while watching television, but that's because I know from previous years about how much space I need for various things. Just putting it on paper helps a lot. Remember not to plant your tomatoes in the same place every year if you can at all help it. They say it's best to alternate between three different places but I just switch the tomatoes from one side of the raised bed to the other every year. It helps to know how much space things need to grow but keep in mind that you can plant much more intensely if you have very good soil enriched with a lot of compost. That's the theory I subscribe to. Make the soil as good as you can and then stick a lot of veggies in there. You can also plan out where you'll be switching things out. For instance, I always place my cucumbers and my peas in the same spot because the peas are usually done by the time it's time for the cukes to be planted.

Finish your clean up
If you're like me, sometimes you don't get to everything that needs cleaning up in fall. I prefer to leave some things, like perennial grasses, standing for winter interest. It's important to chop off the dead foliage on these as soon as possible (mine are still under snow, but I will do it the second I can get to them). The problem with spring clean up is that you have to be careful about walking in your beds. The last thing you want to do is compact your soil when it is sodden. If I have to step in beds I try to do it in one step instead of tromping all over the place and then I use a rake to reach in and pull out any material I've cut down.

So all is not lost as we wait for spring to arrive!

Speaking of spring, don't forget about the Grand Garden Show on Mackinac Island this summer (check out some of the details here). They now have the website for the event up and complete and I'm absolutely thrilled to see that Stacey Hirvela of Spring Meadow Nursery and Susan Martin of Walters Gardens have joined the line-up. I heard Stacey speak back when she was working at Martha Stewart Inc. and it was memorable.

Jack Barnwell also tells me that he's got all the private garden owners signed on for tours as well and I can assure you this will be a spectacular opportunity that is probably a once-in-a-lifetime thing.

Anyway, check out the website for more info or you can call Karen at 906-430-1206 or email her at mackinacgardenshow (at) gmail.com if you want to ask some specific questions.