Field and Garden: After a windy week, it's time for yardwork

My wife and I looked out the window during supper last month and watched as yet another strong gust shook our neighbor’s trees.

“It was never this windy when I was growing up,” Melissa said.

It wasn’t the first time she had made that comment.

The remark prompted me to check weather data recorded at the NDSU Carrington REC.

The results showed that Melissa was right. This past winter has been exceptionally windy in Foster County.

Since Nov. 1, we’ve had 19 days with wind gusts exceeding 40 miles per hour.

Looking back over the previous ten years, the second windiest winter was 2013-2014, which had eight days with such strong gusts. The other nine winters all had five days or fewer.

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Most of the snow has melted and the wind has subsided, at least temporarily.

As we begin thinking about yards and gardens, I want to mention an opportunity that may be of interest to some readers.

I’m exploring the possibility of establishing a community garden in Carrington.

Are you interested to have a plot on which to grow vegetables this summer? If so, please call or e-mail me (652-2581, [email protected]).

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The pruning of shrubs is one of the first jobs that can be tackled in spring.

Summer-flowering shrubs, including panicle hydrangea, roses, Japanese spirea and potentilla, should be pruned now, before the buds break.

It’s also the right time to prune shrubs that are grown for their beautiful foliage: barberry, burning bush and dogwood.

The pruning of spring-flowering shrubs (lilacs, forsythia, viburnums and honeysuckle) should be delayed until the plants finish blooming in early June.

If you cut these shrubs back now, you’ll remove the flower buds and there won’t be any blossoms to enjoy this spring.

Generally, we need to remove only a few branches from our shrubs.

If the plants are way overgrown, then more drastic pruning may be needed.

One strategy is to cut the entire shrub back to a height of 4 to 10 inches above ground level.

This method doesn’t work for every shrub species, and it leaves a temporary hole in the landscape until the shrub grows back.

A second strategy is more gradual. Beginning with the oldest and woodiest stems, remove 20 to 35 percent of the stems each year for three years.

These two strategies only work on multi-stemmed shrub species. If you have questions about which method is appropriate in your yard, please contact me in the Foster County Extension office.

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We still have two more sessions in this year’s Spring Fever Garden Forum.

This week’s topics include managing insect pests in flower gardens, planting bee friendly lawns and understanding soil organic matter.

The live program is broadcast over the internet on Monday evenings from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.

The presentations can be viewed on your home computer. Or you can join a group of us who view the program each week in the community room of the Carrington City Library.