Well it’s been a glorious week abet strange as well. I am one of the lucky ones, with this virus not directly affecting the work I do. That said, like anyone else it is effecting the amount of work and the getting of materials but it’s makes it all worthwhile in the end
This week still has been pretty busy for us. We are getting our clients gardens ready for the summer and also helping out others by delivering compost supplies directly to their homes. Some of the jobs we have been doing are indeed ones I have written blogs on in the past so being lazy I thought I would use those for this weeks tasks, well really these are the next couple of weeks tasks!
First one has to be cutting back the final bits of stem colour around the garden. Here’s the blog I did for it https://thomasdstone.blog/2018/04/08/pruning-back-dogwoods-cornus-for-stem-colour/
Of course after pruning them back you have loads of lovely stems and the best thing to do with them, use them as hard wood cuttings! https://thomasdstone.blog/2018/03/25/propagating-dogwoods-cornus-from-waste-pruning/
Another job is mulching and it’s one of the jobs I love doing. There’s nothing nicer than a looking a well pruned border that’s been mulched. I prefer now to use a feeding mulch, one that will feed the plants as well as keeping them weed free and much damper than before. Normally I use composted green waste for my mulch but Bloomin amazing is also a great product to use. Here’s the blog I did a few years ago https://thomasdstone.blog/2017/03/27/job-of-the-week-applying-a-feeding-mulch/
Next job has been cutting back penstemons. I prefer doing this as the new growth is coming up though the middle, so from now onwards really and here’s the blog https://thomasdstone.blog/2017/04/16/job-of-the-week-pruning-back-penstemons/
Seed sowing is really starting to get going but in these difficult times finding the right compost is a pain! Dalefoot seed compost is excellent. Here’s my review https://thomasdstone.blog/2018/03/06/dalefoot-composts-the-seed-trial-is-starting/
Roses are starting to leaf up and it’s this time of year and as soon as they appear so do the diseases! Here’s a handy blog on spotting them and treating https://thomasdstone.blog/2017/04/20/treating-rose-leaf-diseases/
It’s getting late for this job but it still can be done. Dividing of perennials still can be done but you do need to make sure they are well watered afterwards https://thomasdstone.blog/2017/03/06/job-of-the-week-dividing-mat-forming-perennials/
Well I hope that’s inspired you to go out and work in the garden
A useful list! I need to cut back my penstemon, and I need to prune my cornus. I need more plants like a hole in the head but I may be unable to resist taking stems for hw cuttings…
Cheers Jon 😀 there’s so much to do in the garden at the moment isn’t there, I wouldn’t take too many then, they have a success rate of around 90%
Actually I’ve got 3 from soft cuttings last year. I shall resist!
Thanks for reminding me to cut back the penstemons !
No probs Fred, I hope you are keeping safe over there
I’m fine thank you and and I take advantage of having a large garden to occupy myself and not be bored during this isolation. Take care too.
I so dislike coppicing (or in our odd situation, pollarding) red twig dogwood. They waited all year to show off their twigs, and I must cut all those twigs off. I keep thinking that I can leave them for another day, but I know that if I do, they will start to foliate, and then get annoyed when I prune them back. By the way, I don’t recommending pollarding something with such short lived canes. We do it only so that they are less likely to get trampled. However, one or tow basal canes are often left to replace the old canes, because we know that the old canes do not last long.
Ahh that’s far enough, I think the temperatures in the uk being a bit cooler, it doesn’t effect them too negativity and they recover and grow away strongly with us
Oh, they grow just fine here too. Coppicing (or pollarding) does not slow them down. They are native here. I just hate to deprive them of all those red twigs that they put so much work into while they still look so pretty. It is necessary though. Otherwise, they do not produce such pretty twigs for next year, and they get so overgrown.