Dear Janet & Steven
How about that?! You invited us to come prune a wisteria
with you this week and we thought, "They're crazy!" But that day
was pretty nice, at least what we could see of it looking out from
the office window. Did you get that vine pruned? - D.S.
-
99% done! It was indeed a very fine day. Cloudy for a brief
time, just long enough to make us grateful for the sun and still
air. Select "wisteria" from our list below to see the result.
There is plenty to do outdoors even while winter still has a
hold. Check it out:
Spring signs
Wisteria pruning
Cutting out winter-kill from evergreens and
shrubs
Un-doing rabbits' damage to shrubs
Why snowshoes are part of our tool
kit
Fertilizer figures
Breaking in new boots and bods
Instant answers
Pardon our dust. We're just posting the photos today.
Admiring spring
Janet basically threw herself on the ground last weekend to
admire a daffodil about 3/8-inch out of the ground. Don't get so
carried away as she did but don't miss the show, either. It's going
to come very fast, now that some plants are a month behind...
plants that make a habit of leaping out of the ground even in a
normal year. Take a look at some beautiful spring
signs.
Wisteria pruning
Four of us tackled four wisteria vines that had accumulated
excess wood a little at a time over their 20 year reign. We sorted
out the main trunks, sawed off branches that had strayed beyond
bounds, and clipped off thin unbranched vines (they lacked flower
buds; their contribution this spring would have been to obscure the
blooms with their emerging foliage). We took off enough wood to
pack a pick-up truck twice over and called it a day. Look and
learn.
Cutting to remove winter
damage
Where you see damage, better to prune sooner than later. How to
know what's damaged, how much to cut when you find it. We use
evergreen holly (Ilex x meserveae) as an example.
In this section: A woo-hoo for plants that beat the odds and
suffered no damage, 'though we expected the worst: Japanese maples
(Acer palmatum) and Ural false spirea (Sorbaria
sorbifolia).
When wascally wabbits beat
us to the punch
Danged rabbits! We'd planned to reduce the size of these shrubs
anyway, but had to cut back even harder than we wanted. See it, and
be prepared.
Snowshoes save the
day
We have to stay off the wet ground, since our tread there is
enough to ruin soil condition for years. Yet the work has to get
done and there are just so many days available. We can place planks
and walk there but snowshoes allow so much more freedom of
movement, and might spread our weight even better than a boardwalk.
No
kidding, take a look.
Buying fertilizer
It's just about time to spread slow release organic materials on
beds so they'll be there for fungi, bacteria and other living
things in the soil to consume them as things warm up. That will
change the nutrients into forms the plants can absorb and put to
good use during spring's growth surge. If you're like most people,
you'll buy too little and fail to spread it generously enough. Check our
chart!
Breaking in new boots, and
breaking back into action
Whether you go out to rake, pick up sticks, clean up after the
pets or prune out what winter killed, treat your own self like
we're treating our new boots. Take it a little at a time and as
soon as you can feel the strain, take a break! More
about this.
Instant answers: Learning,
advising in 140-character bits
On Saturday, April 26 from 10 to 3 we'll be providing instant
answers on our Forum. We hope you will come help, or spread the
word to those who want answers right away to yard work mysteries
such as, "What is this?!" "Can I cut this down?" and "Is this a
weed, or what?" All the details.