Late Winter Chores

Sunny, warmer days in March always mark for me the time to get late winter chores done.  Today the sunshine made for a nice day of pruning.  Pruning used to take a mere five or ten minutes each year, but the number of bushes and trees are multiplying around here, so I didn't get it all done.

The two new river birch and the cherry tree got their pruning today.  Somewhat as expected, the smaller birch took the most pruning, since it seemed to grow the most last year.  On the birch, I took the bottom 8 or 12 inches of limbs off the trunk, and I'll probably take an additional 8 or 12 inches off higher each year as the trees grow.  In addition, the trees got crossing branches taken out to avoid rubbing injuries and increase airflow.

My buckthorn got a good pruning too, and I shaped it just a bit.  All these years I have been growing it as a bush, but it is now finally getting tall enough to start forming it into a tree.

A used my new sheep shears to prune the evergreens, holly, and boxwoods just a bit.  I mostly just evened them up and cut a bit of an angle in so the base would get enough sunlight.

Sarah helped my clean out the cutting garden a bit.  We cut down some of the dead foliage and I raked it onto the garden.  In a few weeks all of the compost from the winter and the spring raked leaves and dead plants will all get tilled into my garden soil.

I took a bit of a look at some potential projects today as I walked the yard.  We have flower bed edging to put in this year.  We have a mess of creeping charlie in the lawn to take out with a sod cutter and replant.  I think I will be planting some large ferns under our back deck.  I also have a couple of rose of sharon bushes to move into the cutting garden.  The red hot power we planted last year is going to need split, probably 4 ways.  I think this is also going to be a year for adding rolling compost bins and rain barrels.

I am still patiently awaiting the blooming of our 'Diane' witchhazel.  Unfortunately the front flower bed where I planted it is still covered in snow due to lack of sunlight.