Today I did a few garden related things just to get outside – nothing major – nothing terribly exciting. Just a few little things as an excuse to breathe some fresh (and rather cold) air. The weather forecast calls for snow flurries over night but little or no accumulation – at least in our area.
Butterfly Bush Cuttings
I took about 20 cuttings from one of our butterfly bushes. It’s the one in the birdbath garden and was admired by my garden club when we met at my house in the summer. Of all the plants in my garden that I find fascinating the red twig dogwoods, the ‘Powis Castle’ artemisia, the salvias, the gaillardia the one that received the most comments was the butterfly bush! I gave away many cuttings that day but no one has reported back to me that any lived. I figured I would root some hardwood cuttings to give away in the spring. Butterfly bush is really easy to root. I used rooting hormone on cuttings with multiple nodes and stuck them in sand (see my page on rooting butterfly bushes for more “how to” details). I put them in a nice pot indoors for them to root over the winter. Hopefully in a few weeks I’ll have some rooted cuttings to share. (Free plants are just one benefit to becoming a member of garden clubs!)
I Dumped out the Compost
I took a load of compost that’s been sitting in an old nursery pot just off of our patio. I use the old nursery pots as temporary holding spots for compost material until I can get around to dumping it in the back compost bin. It works pretty good except that when it gets cold I get lazy and I don’t get the compost back to the bin as often as I should!
I Tinkered on the Blog
Last year I put together a post to use as a directory of sorts for all the landscape plans, designs, and layouts that I’ve put together for our yard over the years. I spent a little time today improving the layout of the layout page! I added short descriptions, thumbnail pictures of the designs, and arranged the thumbnail pictures to double as links to the post where I talked about the plan.
And that’s about it! I know it’s not much but maybe, just maybe, it was enough for me to get outside for a few minutes.
Uh, "it's not much"?!! Dave, are you delusional? Sounds like you got a lot accomplished from my POV!!!!
I would normally miss the blooms of summer but so far we are lucky enough to be able to enjoy them in our new Greenhouse. STOP BY and see what I got blooming sometime.
http://www.facebook.com/BGgarden
Dave, It just occurred to me that I'm Very Thankful for Winter! I think that's another reason I'm more intent on accomplishing goals outdoors in the warm months, here. 😉 But, I thrive on it!
Hmmm. *I* need a nap after your 'not much' day, don't know about you! I will check out your directory after I have some sleep.
Happy Holidays to you Dave and family.
Wow! Dave, I'm always amazed at your Web/Blog designing abilities. Your new tabs and pages here are really awesome and add a lot to your site. You should include one on how to enhance your blog/web page!