52 Skills in 52 Weeks...It's starting to get really hard, and I have only done 5 challenges! I am also starting to question my sanity when I originally thought this blog was a good idea for a full time working mother of two young kids, but I'm not a quitter, so I'll keep on trucking. I recognize that not every challenge is going to be fun, or exciting, or even necessarily successful. I fear this week was one of those challenges. However, I promised to share my journey, even the boring parts, so here I go...
I'm not sure why I thought that pruning was going to be a good challenge. Perhaps I was doing a little multitasking of "stuff I already need to do" and this blog. We moved into our house about 4 years ago and truthfully, we really don't know what we are doing when it comes to landscaping. We have the "plant it, leave it, hope it lives, and hope it looks good" technique. When we moved in, we inherited three beautiful crepe myrtles along our back fence. Of course, with our nonexistent minimal landscaping expertise, we really had no idea what to do with them. Do we prune them all the way back? Do we leave them? Again, no clue. So, imagine our relief when one winter day we drove through a parking lot with a bunch of crepe myrtles, all trimmed harshly back to the stubs. Yes! That is what you do with them! I was filled with joy and relief that I would not need to do any research in order to get these pruned (okay I might be exaggerating, I didn't think it was that big a deal).
The Challenge
Research and properly prune a mature crepe myrtle.
The Process
I started my challenge by checking out several landscaping books about pruning. As I started my research, I realized none of these books suggested anywhere that cutting your crepe myrtle back harshly was the correct way to prune one. " No", I said to myself, "there must be an exception. Why would that gardener and so many other landscapers prune their trees so far back if it wasn't right?" I checked the Sunset Gardening Book, the Pruner's Bible. No one thought this was the right way to do it. So, I consulted with our online database, featuring magazine articles and scholarly journals. Surely, I would find someone who said that cutting my trees back was good. No, not at all. In fact, not only did they discourage this practice, several gardening experts called gardeners who practice this type of pruning, "crepe MURDERERS!" Woah!!!! Hold the phone! Between the Pruning Bible and the crepe murdering, aren't we taking our gardening a little too seriously? Just saying...
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| Wrong way...I think |
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| Weird damaged branch from over pruning. |
Apparently, the correct way to prune a crepe myrtle is NOT to cut your tree back all the way to the stem. It can permanently damage the bark, make it susceptible to disease, and create ugly little nubs all over the trunk where the tree has been previously trimmed too far back. The correct way to prune a crepe myrtle is carefully. Break off the weak and leggy shoots, make sure branches are not rubbing against each other, and remove branches that grow up through the middle of your plant. It is a delicate process, not a harsh one. I did this with one of my crepe myrtles. It was actually a little relaxing---although, honestly, not as fun as hacking away all the branches.
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| Correctly pruned tree...maybe? |
The Result
This was one challenge where, unfortunately, the results will not be visible right away. As of now, I have a crepe myrtle in my yard with no branches, one correctly pruned tree with branches that have room to grow, and another tree that hasn't been pruned at all. I think I am just going to leave them and see what happens! Am I a pruning expert? Well, obviously no. I think that it is something that takes a little more than a week to master. I'm still not totally sure I pruned my tree correctly.
HELP ME!
Okay readers...I really need some more challenge ideas! If you don't want to be subjected to boring posts about "Crepe Murdering", comment with some ideas. I promise, if it is something I can attempt, I will put it on the list!
Here are a few I was considering...photography, couponing, juicing, tiling, candlemaking, cheesemaking, car detail, painting, menu planning. I would love some more suggestions!
This is Peach. Would you please potty train my Poodle!!!!
ReplyDeleteI saw the title and I thought it was going to involve how to make the best crepes.
ReplyDelete@Peach---haha! If we lived closer, I might try. Although I only have experience potty training children...
ReplyDelete@ anonymous---While I can also probably murder those types of crepes (and might try!), it was the plants not the food. Apparently, not only is pruning technique a big hot point in the gardening world, but also the debate of whether to spell the plant/shrub/tree crepe or crape.