Posts tagged as:

pruning

Pruning with a Reciprocating Saw

May 12, 2009

Use a reciprocating saw for your medium size pruning jobs

Carol’s done it. Mary Ann, the Idaho Gardener’s done it. So has Mr. McGregor’s Daughter and Cindy from My Corner of Katy and M Sinclair Stevens from Zanthan Gardens. They’ve all used a reciprocating saw to prune woody plants.
Not only have they pruned with a recip saw, they raved about how easy it made pruning. [...]

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Mud Season Chores: Pruning

March 22, 2009

Mud season, despite its fickle weather, not only has color, but its own set of gardening chores. For those of us living in cold climates, these chores anticipate the growth that will soon come as so many plants emerge from dormancy. Growth is so slow at the beginning of mud season that it is easy [...]

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Forsythia Pruning: Before and After

July 10, 2007

Forsythia before pruning began

Back in April, I discussed my upcoming plans to prune my forsythia bush. It wasn’t flowering very much, and my commenters agreed with me that it needed a heavy pruning. Some even suggested cutting the whole thing down to the ground. But I felt a little too nervous to do that.

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Pruning strategy for forsythia

April 27, 2007

Remember the forsythia I pruned so that I could force some branches? It doesn’t look so floriferous out in the open, does it? (For comparison, check out the forsythias here.)
When I’m faced with a plant that’s not doing as well as expected, I try to analyze the situation before taking action. In the case of [...]

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Pruning forsythia in mud season

April 10, 2007

The standard advice for pruning spring-blooming shrubs is to prune them no later than two weeks after they’re done blooming. This is because most spring-flowering shrubs, at least, all those commonly grown, develop their flower buds on the previous year’s wood. So if you prune them in high summer, or autumn, you are cutting off [...]

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Early Pruning

March 18, 2007

Pruning the apple trees is a rite of spring. In past years I had a tendency to get started late and finish in a somewhat hurried splurge of activity—tinged with a bit of panic that perhaps I wouldn’t get it done in time. This year I had to take a different approach.
Since I’m no longer [...]

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Gardening in February

February 21, 2006

Forget the weeding. That was an anomaly. Back, sort of, to the real February. I say “sort of” because yesterday and today the temperature is hovering a bit above freezing, which is on the warm side for February around here. (Average high for the month is 30F, and my outdoor thermometer registers 35F right [...]

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Tending the Apple Trees

April 21, 2003

On Friday the apple tree I bought from St. Lawrence Nurseries arrived. It came while I was out, and I didn’t get back until late in the day, exhausted from working. The tree was supposed to be planted as soon as possible, and since it wasn’t a cheap plant, I didn’t feel at leisure to [...]

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Lilac Books

September 6, 2002

I’ve been reading Lilacs for the Garden by Jennifer Bennett. It’s a much more approachable book than Fiala’s Lilacs: The Genus Syringa and has detailed information on numerous cultivars and species. I’ve discovered lilacs that bloom earlier and later than the ones in my garden, especially fragrant lilacs, especially hardy lilacs, and lilacs that do [...]

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