first let me say
that spring has already sprung around here
popped up
earlier this week i saw the first purple martins
zooming around our purple martin house
our jonquils are blooming real strong now
some popped up in december
those grape koolaid smelling blooms are out on
all our mountain laurels
the bees and butterflies are going nutso over them
never seen that this early
all our peach trees have bloomed
its like the clock got turned forward 6 weeks
now
its trim time around here
the recommendation around here is to start trimming
around valentines day
well
i am behind
since i was busy with the habitat landscape my garden
fence repair the alzheimers study i am in required
frequent visits as i try to qualify for the new treatment
study
but
today
is when i start my trim day
i probably should have done it 6 weeks ago
keeping in step with the weather
its going to be 90+ here today
i can tell how warm it is by how much wood
we have not used in our wood burning stove
i still havent used up all the wood we bought last year
and
probably wont
i start out front of our property at our entrances
to trim stray branches on our live oaks
i should have done this though in december
since theres less risk of the oak wilt getting transferred
when its real hot or real cold
i cant ever remember whether i should paint my cuts or not
so
i paint my cuts
plus
cosmetically it looks better
i go through all my trees looking for broken limbs
low lying limbs i can hit my head on
my rule is if my head touches them i trim them off
sometimes branches cross each other
sometimes they have grown over the driveway
so they can hit cars or high sitting trucks
i do have a pecan tree that up and died in the drought
i gave it a couple years hoping it would survive
its dead
down it comes
another example of planting a plant where it doesnt
want to grow
the soil is too thin and rocky here to grow pecans well
i also have a lot of dying hackberries that need trimmed
or cut down
as with hackberries
they pop up all over the place
usually where you dont want them
ill cut down these newbies
now hackberries are a good source of food for birds
but
they can be messy
i leave them alone if they grow up in my pastures
we have two mountain laurels
they grow slow real slow
dont ever trim them back like a hedge
i will selectively trim my mexican buckeye eastern red buds
yaupon hollies
we have probably 30 salvia greggi or autumn sages
i will usually every 1-2 years trim them back to about 6-12 inches
so new growth will occur which produces more flowers
i have one knock rose and will trim it back about 1/3
you dont have to
but
it just seems to look better and produce better roses
antique roses dont need trimmed
th lady banksia rose if you want to trim it do it
after it blooms in the spring
yes mine has already bloomed
i dont trim back my turks cap shrimp plant abelia
yellow belles agarita gregs mist flame acanthus
texas sage american beautyberry or jerusalem sage
any of my vines plants like coral honeysuckle trumpet vine
cross vine virginia creeper
i usually will thin out my spineless cactus
since they grew a lot last year
and
got damaged by the cold spell we had this winter
when it got to 12 degrees
even the native prickly cactus got damaged this year
so what do i do with all these trimmings
i dont have a shredder/mulcher
so
i let mother nature do it the old fashion way
i have large brush piles around the property
that i dump them on
these provide cover for lots of birds and wild animals
recently the quail have returned to the country n
a good sign we are doing something right
rule
dont let leaves and cuttings leave your property
add all that carbon back to the ground
it is interesting to watch these decompose over time
enriching the property
so
yes its time
todays the day
fyi
here is a pdf file of native and adapted landscape plants
for the central texas area
its also usually available free at most nurseries around here
the organicgreen doctor
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