I worked in the garden yesterday! It’s been ages. On my list was weeding and pruning.
I got a lot of weeding done, but not all of it. Mostly, I just REALLY needed to get rid of some thistle plants. I don’t know specifically what these are, but they are really prolific. It’s weird, because I only had three or four of them last year, and now this year there were a TON. I’m a little worried that they have running roots and that the roots have completely covered the ground in my garden. I used my digging/weeding tool to get them out, and they had looong taproots. The roots often broke instead of coming out completely. I hope it was enough to kill them.
The pruning was mostly about the front yard. I have more to do in the back, but people see the front, and it’s been looking so raggedy. I cut the beautyberry bush to the ground, like I do every year. I am tempted to take it out all together. It’s heavily infested with wooly scale insects. I’m using high-powered poison this year, and if it doesn’t take care of the bugs, I’ll dig it out next year.
I also pruned the smoke bush. I would normally say that topping a tree or bush is an abomination, but a few years ago, the smoke bush fell over because it was too tall. I cut all the branches back to two trunks, and have been pruning it every spring since then. Actually, now that I look around on the internet a little, what I’m doing might more accurately be called pollarding. It’s an accepted practice.
BEFORE:
AFTER:
Huh. We have a smoke bush at school and it is growing crazy-tall. Perhaps we should pollard it. (Is that the accepted verb?)
Congrats on your productive day!
If you do decide to pollard it (I think that’s a verb), you will never get any “smoke” (that is, seedheads), because the flowers are produced on old wood, and you’ll be cutting them off. I’m mostly growing it for the purple leaves, so I don’t miss the seedheads.
Geez, you are just a reservoir of energy here lately!! I’m glad you got to work in the garden! The tree looks nice! Only 2 more weeks & I can but my banana tree in the ground. Or can I keep it in a pot … if I get a bigger pot? Or is that not recommended for this type of plant?