Prune, Cutback, Deadhead and Clean Up

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SPRING CLEANING
One of the beauties from our collection of iris.

Great weather today for getting out in the yard - 75-degrees F with a light breeze.

There are many tasks to take care of already that require loppers and pruners. I love the Fiskars pruners with the rolling handle. An entire day of cleaning out beds, cutting out shrubs and young trees, trimming daffodil and iris plants and my hands do not hurt. (What Americans call pruners, the British call secateurs - I'm reading a British gardening book)


Now that the weather has cleared, I'm planting 20-plants a day as a goal. Of course weeding and soil amending is being done in order to give my babies a chance to thrive. I still have about a 50 percent thrive rate. The other half are eaten by bugs and bunnies, fail altogether or just never make the grade.

This is a good time to make the first cut on your chrysanthemums. Begin pruning them back now so they will bloom on full, well-branched stems in the fall. The last cut will be at the end of June.
What's happening where you garden?

Comments

Anonymous said…
20 plants each day! Wow, that is a lot, my yard would be full in a week!

Your post has given me inspiration to go an dead head my Geisha Girl bush, it is quite big so it may take me some time.
May 19, 2008 at 3:55 AM
Anonymous said…
Hi Ben -
Which Geisha Girl do you grow? I looked it up on the internet only to find that there is more than one called that.

The 20 plants in the ground a day is a necessity. I have to get the seedlings into the ground because I'm losing interest in keeping them alive by watering them twice a day in those tiny starter pots.

Today, I put in 20 or 30 tiny zinnias that only have their first and second sets of true leaves. Risky but it has to be done fast or none of them make it to maturity.

Burning out and have many to go before I can stop. <-))
May 19, 2008 at 8:03 PM
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