Garden Work Clipping off the Winter Kill on Shrubs

The winter of 2015 started out fairly quiet through January.  Then February hit and Long Island had several really awful snow storms and record breaking cold weather.  The snow just wouldn't go away.  Many of the shrubs in the Jarvis House Garden were weighted down by this heavy wet snow.  The leaves on this Rhododendron really got burned.

 So, today the weather was above freezing and the snow had  started to melt away.  Time to get outside with the clippers and cloppers and work on the shrubs!

 If the leaves on the Rhododendrons look curled up, they are in the process of dying.  Eventually they will look like this. 

So you may as well cut them out now.  They never seem to come back after looking like that.

My small clippers

 Rhododendron leaves  on the shrub,

on their way out.  Rhododendrons do not mind clipping back, rather it encourages new growth and keeps the plants compact, not leggy.

 

 This is a Spirea that had a lot of snow piled on top if it.

 With my small clippers I gave it a hair cut and trimmed it back for Spring.

 This is a messy giant fern plant.  Its stalks are done and they were mashed down by the snow.

 I clipped off all of the dead stalks t o make ready for the Spring fiddle head growth.

 Next I tackled the Knock out rose bush in the corner of the driveway garden. 

 I needed the larger cloppers to cut through the thick stems.

This side wall of the pantry needs paint this Spring,  the dryer vent will need cleaning, and the split rail needs fixing.  So cutting this shrub way back away from these things is essential.  It will encourage massive blooms later in the season too.

I have a basket hanging in my garage, dedicated to making labels for the yard waste collection bags.  Its handy, and I always know where the markers and scissors are!

These are the two yard waste bags that I filled today.  Our town picks up yard waste separately.o I label the bags.    There will be a lot more to do in future days, but this was a good start, and its never too early to do outside work if you dress properly.