Yesterday the weather was great so I went outside to tinker and putter around. Tinkering and puttering is just when you look for little things to do that don’t take a lot of time but you need or want to get done. Here’s what I did:
I trimmed the ornamental grasses down. They were looking pretty ragged and since they never had any flower stalks appear they were lacking any great winter interest. I clipped them down to about 4-5 inches tall. Now they’re ready to go for spring.
I clipped a few of the salvias’ dead growth off. The old growth wasn’t doing much good in sheltering the base of the plant and off it went! I did the same with the enchinacea.
I pruned off a side shoot of an Achillea and since it had roots I potted it up. Then I put it in the garage green house for it to grow on until spring.
I transplanted my red-twig dogwoods (Cornus stolinifera) into soil! It was exciting to see the roots on all four of the cuttings. 100% success on the dogwoods after almost giving up on them!
I also transplanted five purple leaf plums (Prunus cerasifera) into pots. I pruned up a couple purple leaf plums in my parents yard in the fall and decided to try to root a few. I wasn’t sure how easy they would be to root and took as many small branches as I could. It probably numbered around 35. The five I checked all had good root systems going which makes me wonder how many of the others are rooted. Maybe I can take them to a plant exchange or give a few away!
I also planted four small pots of lavender. It was called Lavender Lady which is said to flower in the first year from seed. We’ll see if I can get them going!
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this is the time of year to putter so as to not let it all build up! i need to get my ornamental grasses cut. what did you use? i want a nice pruning thing like frances has but right now usually use hand pruners. not cool. too long to trim. any tips?
I just used some hand pruners and gloves. I messed with some grass once and didn’t have gloves. It was like a bunch of little tiny paper cuts! I just grabbed the tufts of grass in one hand and cut with the other. My grass was not very thick since it was divided in the fall and the pruners worked pretty good. Spring is better for dividing grasses but it was early fall and they had time to re-establish a bit.
The Saint and i went into the yard to putz today and we ended up cutting down a small tree! Monday we will take down two large ones with our neighbors tractors help! Making way for a riding mower shed…
I want to putter, but it’s too cold and wet. Next nice day, I’m out there.