Pruning

[Heruka]

Hi, I am a total novice Gardner who bought a house with a large beautiful mature garden last year. Just about managed to keep it tidy over summer and experiment with the veggie patch but in the last couple of months I’ve had no time to do anything, and I think procrastinated as I don’t know what to do! There are fruit trees and roses that I have not pruned, all kinds of flowers and bushes that I presume need cut back. When we move in last Dec the lady had it so tidy and there were bags of leaf mould (I think) which I used during the summer.

So my questions are:

Do I go reading about each type of plant and how to prune (not realistic) or just chop and tidy up and hope for the best? Is that just part of the trial and error of it all?

Should I feed the soil now? I remember the soil was full of the little yellow food pellets when we arrived.

Do I just bag up the leaves and leave them to it?

Anything I should know not to do that would create total disaster?!

Yes bag up the leaves into black sacks, punch holes in them and leave them in the corner of the garden somewhere, for next years leaf mould.

I personally would look up each shrub, if you can’t fathom what they are, then wait for them to flower and take a picture of them to upload onto PlantNet app, which will tell you what the shrub is called. Then you can look up the shrub on rhs site which will tell you all about it and when to prune.

Roses you can prune down by half now cut just above a node to stop wind rock.

As a rule of thumb, prune after flowering. If that means pruning at the start of winter, possibly better to leave it to end of winter, just before they start growing again.

If you’re growing something for its berries, don’t prune after flowering.

Yes bag up the leaves into black sacks, punch holes in them and leave them in the corner of the garden somewhere, for next years leaf mould.

Make sure the leaves are damp (that shouldn't be a problem this year!). Tougher leaves may take a year or two to break down.

Duh...I meant to say two or three years.

Personally, I wouldn't prune anything until you've seen it flowering and then do it soon afterwards. If you wait a year and something hasn't flowered at all then it's normally safe to prune late autumn or early spring.

Nothing will suffer too greatly for missing a year of pruning if you prefer a cautious appraoch.

That said, little suffers from being pruned too early either - except that you may have cut off next year's flowers so it'll skip a season.

Gardening is all about trial and error

Having just raked up four bagfuls of leaves, one more thing on leaf mould - not ordinary domestic black binbags. As I discovered one year when I went to pick up a bag which had been quietly rotting down for a year or so and it disintegrated into a mess of degraded bits of plastic and half rotted leaf.
Old compost sacks are ideal, but otherwise make sure you get something which isn't degradable (bio or otherwise).

Thanks so much for all these useful tips. I have some thick rubble sack type black bags that may do for the leaves, Errol?

Nothing will suffer too greatly for missing a year of pruning if you prefer a cautious appraoch.

I think this is what I was looking to hear, Spinach. I am concerned that I’ve already left it too late after flowering on some things and may make them suffer if I go at it now. Like a lovely blackcurrant bush, I did watch monty explaining what to do but didn’t manage the time and now it’s got new growth so I’m assuming that’s best left and be a better gardener next year!! Do you think I should leave the fruit trees given I have not done them? I’m sure I’ve read some people do them in winter and some just after fruiting? They are quite young apple, pear and plum which all fruited this year (but squirrels ate).

There is a massive climbing rose that stopped flowering about 6weeks ago but needs pruned whatever as it’s about to grow over the neighbours fence and looks like something from little shop of horrors.

What about flowers in the bed, like echinaceas that have finished flowering, and a big fennel thing, do I cut them down?

Sorry that’s a gazillion questions I know I can just look up

OP I could have written your post myself. The gentleman who lived here before us kept the garden beautiful. But I have no idea what I'm doing and have two small DC. It was okay in the summer as the DC would play in the garden whilst I tidied etc but now it's winter it's harder. I have a few gardening books I am trying to research all the different plants. I think it's just about learning on the job

Yes snap, the kids are less interested in helping with cold and damp tidy up jobs than they were when we planted our veggies in the summer!!

Do you think I should leave the fruit trees given I have not done them?

Most fruit trees/shrubs already have next years buds on them and if you do them now you may cut off some buds and may leave the tree/shrub vulnerable to the first few frosts.

I'd simply wait now and do it just after they have fruited next year.

Once you've had all your fruits off next summer, you'd do it soon after. If you do this, you may find it puts on less new shoots this spring because pruning often stimulates growth and the fruits are harder to get to on the shrubs because all the old wood is in the way. But nothing that will cause lasting damage to the plant and you don't risk cutting off any growth now that would have fruited next year.

There is a massive climbing rose that stopped flowering about 6 weeks ago but needs pruned whatever as it’s about to grow over the neighbours fence and looks like something from little shop of horrors.

Roses are tough as old boots. Do it now if it's a real pita but it is unlikely to grow much more this season. Or do it very early spring (Feb-Mar). Be as brutal as you dare - climbers only flower on brand new growth so will grow the stalks next spring/summer that will provide next year's flowers.

What about flowers in the bed, like echinaceas that have finished flowering, and a big fennel thing, do I cut them down?

Mostly this is a personal/aesthetic choice for herbaceous pernennials/anyting whose leaves and stalks are dying back naturally this time of year. I leave them and all the stalks for winter wildlife to make the most of and because the earth is pretty bare without them. I then take them down to the ground in the New Year when the worst frosts are gone (again Feb-Mar time). Some (most) will have all withered away and died back by then anyway - they will reshoot next season. What I would do NOW is stick markers in the ground where they are. You'd be amazed how much they can vanish over the winter and it becomes impossible to remember what was where.

That said, little suffers from being pruned too early either - except that you may have cut off next year's flowers so it'll skip a season. Friends had a winter flowering Viburnum which they were pruning along with everything else just after leaf fall. It had never flowered. Fortunately I saw it and suggested they leave pruning till late spring.

Spinach, I am loving this advice to leave things alone! And all the better if it’s good for wildlife. Can I ask why do I need to remember where things are? For if I want to plant bedding plants etc?

Managed to do a little leaf raking and tidying up with the kids today and planted some bulbs that the squirrels are probably going to relieve us of…

Can I ask why do I need to remember where things are? For if I want to plant bedding plants etc? Yes, and so you don’t try to pull up the new shoots thinking they’re weeds.

Can I ask why do I need to remember where things are? For if I want to plant bedding plants etc?

Absolutely - because by next spring you are going to be hooked and buying everything in the garden centre and wondering where to plant them all

Also, because after a long dark winter, when the first shoots start, you're going to want to know what they are loooong before they are recognisable to you. If for no other reason than you've started to think of them as your little wards and want to know which ones you are looking at.

You just gotta trust us on this. I've wasted too may hours debating if that little green leaf is the start of the solomon seal, or a tulip or a daffodil or something new entirely

As a very novice gardener a few years ago, I now think I've picked up lots of knowledge and am quite competent (imo), by reading Gardeners World. There's loads of tips for what to do when every month, and information about different plants that you just pick up gradually through reading. My mum gets me an annual subscription for my birthday every year, but I can also get free access to digital copies of the magazine (and loads of others) via my library using the PressReader or Libby apps. If your library offers that too, or you fancy splashing out on a subscription, I would highly recommend it. A subscription gives you access to decent offers too, and I've even won some gardening gloves through their competitions, which I suspect they sent to everyone who entered.