What to Do While Waiting For Winter

It's the last third of Fall. I've covered the beds with fallen leaves, shored up the rose bushes and other tenders with leaves and dirt and filled the bird feeders. There they are - finally exposed for all to see - the branches of my garden. Because I dream about pruning, I've waited for this moment all year.

I know I'm projecting my life onto my garden. There are many things I'd like to prune that I won't get to this year - a little less tv, encourage my reading to grow in a different direction, bake more cookies. Instead I shift focus to the brown, grey, red and yellow stalks that shelter my garden and its wildlife.

Gardening wisdom has it that one doesn't prune in either Fall or Spring. Spring is wrong for the obvious reason that sap is flowing and buds are bursting and if your plant is the type that puts out water spouts, you'll be inundated. Fall is wrong because with all the leaves falling, irritant spores are everywhere and you don't want to leave a wound open that would draw in disease.

I'm left with the months that now pass for Winter in Toronto - December, January, February (before the witchhazel blooms).

I have plans. I want to remove the lower branches of all my major deciduous trees. The yellow birch on the front lawn, the tulip tree on the side front lawn, and the Kentucky coffee tree in the back are all due for having their three lowest branches pruned.

Shrubs can be more difficult. The doublefile viburnums are prone to water spouting, so I must be judicious, though I'd like to create space underneath them. The roses can be pruned or tied so the canes don't wave around or get weighted down by snow. It's best to avoid pruning both the witch hazel and the oakleaf hydrangea. I wouldn't dream of touching either. I want them to grow much bigger.

Lastly, the wisteria can be pruned back by as much as 90% of new growth, but not this year. I'm trying to regrow it after Sophie ate through the oldest stems in 2005.

Long ago I gave up pruning my clematis.

There's my plan. Now I sit back and wait for frost to slow everything down.