Doing things by the book

[andy]

Firstly, this is no way meant to be a post that contradicts anyone or at all insults them....it is purely a post about how "profesional" gardeners go about things.

There's been several posts lately where someone has posted, for example, you should prune xxxxxx shrub dring August or you should divide yyyyyyyyy perennial during the spring......of which i've usually totally contradicted the answer and said something completely different.

Let's take and example.....i replied to someone that i prune my Penstemon back in autumn. Someone (possibly Rita) also replied that it should be done in spring and gave a link to a gardening page.

So who's right ?

Well both really....there's pros and cons for both answers. By pruning in autumn, it gives the plant chance to grow back a bit and get a head start especially as our autumn months are very mild and wet.
However, if there is a nasty cold spell, there's a chance the growth will be killed off as it's fairly young and soft.

Now spring pruning will give a better chance for young growth (although not entirely out of the woods as far as frost/snow is concerned) but it will possibly flower later and not be so prolific as the more advanced autumn pruning growth.

As profesionals.....especially working for the local authority, you tend to get a "it's got two chances" type attitude....bung it in and we'll see what happens. And usually it works out well. We will prune almost everything in winter with the exception of a few plants such as wisteria that need specialist treatment.
Shrubs are planted bare root all winter.....even in frosty ground and we never usually have any problems.
Very few plants are watered in once planted although we do have a good tree watering routine as we plant 500 new trees a year.
And of course, bedding is literally "dig hole with trowel, throw plant in hole, cover roots, prey for rain" asnd we get very few losses. Shrubs are planted with a hefty size 11 steel toe cap boot firming them down....but when you have 40 mahonia for example to plant, you have to be fairly efficient.

I do adopt the same "casual" attitude at home too....just bung em in and let em get on with it....and it pretty nearly always works fine. I never add anything to the soil (food wise) although i do feed tubs at home and i really just leave the plants to their own devices.

Sometimes at work, i'll either plant a new alpine or shrub or transplant a seedling i've found and then forget about it. Then, 6 months later i'll be weeding and find the plant which has grown 200% and looks magnificent. I then think "what the hell's that and where did it come from"....only to remember it was that little seedling i planted back in the early spring !!!!

So do we take too much care of our plants ? Well sometimes we possibly do although i'm in a lucky enough position that if i want any plant, i'll either order it or get it from our nursery....thus not costing me a penny. If i had to pay a lot of money out of my own pocket, maybe i'd take more care....who knows.

So hopefully you have got some kind of insight into a profesional cowboy's gardening values. Not all pros are the same...some do take an awful lot of care....usually with the same results as i get though.
If i appear to get something wrong.....eg tell someone to prune at the wrong time, just remember that there may be reasons for the suggestions and i certainly would never advise people to do something unless i know it works.

Comments ?

[Chuckles]

Morning profesional cowboy

You are soooooo right andy. We all have our different ways, I'm a try it and see sort of gardener, within reason. Some people get away with what others would not even consider. There is a lot of flexibilty in all gardening procedures IMO and some folk are more GREEN FINGERED and luckier than others with what they do. Good thread andy

[Rosefriend]

I suppose it is the hedge trimmer and secateur question on Roses isn't it. I was always been a one for doing things the right way and I must say that I have thankfully loosened up a great deal in the last few years, even to the point of a neighbour telling me that she had watched me doing something and I had told her to do it another way.

I am also a friend of summer pruning bushes and shrubs, but tend to work in my garden by feel. If I feel that it is right to be doing something, then I do it.

Somethings, - like washing pots - well there I am idle I am afraid, although I always clean spades etc.

I have found that it depends very often what I am planting as to how careful I am. Summer plants get thrown in and they either enjoy their short lives in my garden or they don't. My roses and acers are treated with tlc, and I think that a little less attention would probably do them the world of good.

As I am friendly with the man who owns the Garden Nursery that I go to, I ring or email when I have problems and he nearly always says, - do you want to know the right way to do it, or the way that I do it.

That is the way it should be to my mind.

RF

[roxann57]

A lot depends on where you live, down south I can do things in the garden a lot earlier/later, so tend to read all the advice given and then do my own thing. It works most of the time but mistakes are how we all learn. We never stop learning which is the great thing about gardening

[Deleted]

Andy

It's interesting to read how you do things as a professional and I think it just shows how resilient plants are. Everyone does things differently but on the whole the plants will take just about any kind of treatment !

I'm of the opinion that the right time to do something is "when I get round to it" and the right way to do something is "whatever way I want to do it". I've chopped penstemmons in Autumn and also in Spring. Didn't seem to matter much either way. They survived and flowered again.

I think most plants are pretty resilient and provided you don't do anything particularly stupid like trying to plant Summer bedding when it's snowing, I think that most plants will at least have a go at surviving even if they don't particularly thrive.

Anyway, we all learn from our mistakes and if you do something once and a plant dies, it's not the end of the world. Simply learn by your mistakes and don't repeat them.

FA x

[Deleted]

I am very conscious of the fact that we all live in different parts of the country from the warmer climes of Cornwall to the far north of Scotland, a few people live on the continent too, some have coastal gardens and others like me live in a frost pocket - so the weather conditions we experience will be far ranging. The growing season in the north of Scotland is much shorter, spring arrives much later and winter arrives much earlier too

If we all had exactly the same growing conditions and climate then it would be possible to generalise and refer to our own personal experiences, methods and practices on when and how to carry out many tasks in the garden.

What works for someone living on the south coast of England may not work for someone living in the Scottish Glens for example

I try when ever possible, to back up any advice I give with a good online link to the RHS or similar