Garden Centre

Thursday, November 5, 2009

November garden tasks

This month I’m starting my hardwood cuttings – I’ve got spirea and viburnam that I want to propagate to sell this time next year at a garden sale for a local hospice. The best time for these plants to be struck as cuttings is from November to January because they have gone dormant from this year and not begun to set the coming year's leaf buds. Cuttings should be about a foot long and have around three buds. Trim the cutting to about six inches, keeping all the buds and simply push the right end of the cutting into an area of sheltered soil, or a large pot containing a mixture of potting compost and sand. If you plant it upside down it will NOT grow! Leave alone for a year and you have baby plants.

I’m also mulching, although I don’t have too much exposed soil to mulch this year, I’m trying to get some good layers of organic matter under the evergreens where the soil will be getting starved of nutrients.

And I’m piling up sacks and sacks of leaves from the apple trees to use as mulch in two years time. Such a boring job but at least it makes for free garden enrichment!

Labels: autumn hardwood cuttings, autumn mulching, spirea, viburnam

The All Seasons Gardener at 10:04 AM

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