Tuesday 24 June 2014

Summer Pruning

Sunday and Monday continued the lovely spell of weather we've been having over the last week or so. With decent sunny spells and temperatures into the low twenties centigrade it feels as though summer really has arrived.

I've been trying to decide whether or not to spray our potatoes and tomatoes with Bordeaux Mix to try and control or stop the spread of blight on our plants on the plot. Some rows of potatoes are badly affected and some are still clear of any signs.
We've still got some powder left from our failed attempt to control peach leaf curl. Perhaps it works better against blight. I seem to remember using it a good number of years ago now without any success but perhaps I didn't keep up with the fortnightly spraying regime that’s required. I suppose I might as well use up the powder rather than leave it a cupboard where it certainly won't do anything to control the blight.

Whilst I was considering our blight problem I thought it was about time I tackled one of our camellia bushes which has grown a bit too large for its location and is obstructing one of our garden footpaths. 
I had toyed with the idea of moving it to a more suitable spot but I don’t really think it would move successfully. In any case I would have to prune it severely to have any chance of digging around the root ball and it would also needs lots of watering if the weather continued to be warm and dry. So I settled for a severe chop similar to the one I gave our other camellia and which has recovered well and flowered this year. I think it missed flowering for one spring.
I’ve done it now! Maybe I was a bit too lopper happy but it’s too late to worry now. As for the debris it’s all chopped up and in the garden waste recycling bin with room to spare. I thought I might be getting rid of it over a few weeks.
Next in line is the bamboo that you can now see lurking behind the pruned camellia. This isn't going to get the pruning treatment more a complete digging out treatment. We should be able to recycle a few decent canes when the bamboo gets the chop.

4 comments:

  1. Yikes. That's Mick's idea of pruning, he leaves me with very little plant if I ask him to do it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I don't count deadheading as pruning. I didn't even need the saw.

      Delete
    2. Yikes was my reaction too, Jo!

      Delete
  2. It`s the same old thorny problem about spraying or not, I would like to find out what the pros think about bordeaux mixture

    ReplyDelete

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