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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