Today was another beautiful day up here in , so my newly budding shrubs and roses were calling me to trim them from their winter dead weight. I try to apply my shears in a restraining fashion but I, for some reason, get carried away fairly easily. Thank goodness I’m not a hairdresser, I think that I’d get killed by all my customers because I can’t stop cutting.
I tackled the wild rose bushes that frame the stairs that lead to the backyard pool. They were making the stairs impassable and they were also encroaching on the walkway on the left side of the pool. I didn’t have a choice, I had to prune them. My Tantine Cecile has wonderful results with her plants and I always remember her saying that roses, every few years or so, need a good thorough pruning so that new growth comes from the center canes, the heart of the rose-bush. Oh boy, did my wild roses get a good thorough cleaning. I finally forced myself to walk away and not look back.
I turned my sights onto my huge sprawling rose-bush on the side by the propane tank that heats the pool. I love how it hides a lot of blemishes in the yard, so I was extremely conservative in my pruning. I did feel the urge to keep going but I reminded myself that I had a huge shrub that I really wanted to trim down to size. I took a tooth saw and sawed away until my hands started getting numb. I tried manually today but don’t worry, tomorrow I’m going to take to the shrubs with a sawzall. I’ll be sure to be very careful. I have been wanting to trim them down for a few years now. My goal is to get it done this season.