Pruning and mulching

Despite the very long and cold winter all the plants in the garden are starting to show signs of spring.

We have already pruned the Hydrangeas due to the fact that they are budding up rapidly. We always use the three D’s of pruning as our starting point.

What are the 3 D’s of pruning I hear you ask?

Remove:-
D= Dead
D= Damaged
D= Diseased (plus we try to remove crossing branches but that doesn’t begin with D!)

We cut to a pair of fat buds on last years growth. Any over grown plant we have a method of taking out a third of all stems each year for three years so on the fourth year you have completely regenerated the shrub while still having a show of flowers each year.