Pruning Around My Pool
Outdoor summer chores at my Bedford, New York farm continue with a good pruning of the shrubs around my pool.
Around the outside of the pool fence, I have a growing hedge of two dark-colored burgundy-black leafed specimens - Physocarpus opulifolius ‘Diabolo’ and Cotinus coggygria ‘Royal Purple' shrubs. I always try to incorporate unique and interesting plantings into my gardens - both these shrubs have superlative color and appealing form. They were first planted in 2018 and have done so well in this area. This week, my crew pruned them down quite a bit - some of the shrubs had grown more than a foot since spring.
Here are some photos.
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- When planning the gardens around my pool, I wanted to create a natural border along both sides of my pool fence, so I chose a dark purple color palette. The specimens have developed nicely and are now very productive. Here, one can see the growth since these hedges were last pruned.
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- The smaller shrubs are the alternating Physocarpus opulifolius ‘Diabolo’ and Cotinus coggygria ‘Royal Purple’. Pasang and Domi from my outdoor grounds crew do a lot of the pruning around the farm. They pruned all the specimens – cutting down more than a foot off the tops in some areas. We keep this outer hedge in line with the fence, so the taller hedge of purple columnar beech trees, Fagus sylvatica ‘Dawyck Purple’ can also be seen.
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- Physocarpus is commonly called ninebark, and is an upright, spreading, somewhat coarse, deciduous, Missouri-native shrub which is closely related to the genus Spiraea. It boasts a deep burgundy foliage with ovate to rounded, usually three to five lobed leaves that are dull green in summer changing to an undistinguished yellow in fall. Then its color veers toward bronzy red by the time the leaves fall in late November.
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- After the white flowers of the physocarpus bloom, what follows are these seed pods – a favorite food of small birds.
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- Also known as smoketree or smoke bush, Cotinus is a genus of two species of flowering plants in the family Anacardiaceae, closely related to the sumacs. They are a great choice for massing or for hedges. The stunning dark red-purple foliage turns scarlet in autumn and has plume-like seed clusters, which appear after the flowers and give a long-lasting, smoky haze to branch tips.
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- The underside of the leaves is also very pretty. Their smooth, rounded leaves come in exceptional shades of clear pinkish-bronze, yellow, deep purple, and green.
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- For this hedge, Pasang uses his Okatsune hand pruners. Pruning shears, hand pruners, or secateurs are a type of scissors used on plants. They are strong enough to prune hard branches of trees and shrubs, sometimes up to an inch thick. Everyone on the crew has a pair.
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- Pasang cuts off any dead or crisscrossing branches first. The rule of thumb when pruning is to cut the dead, diseased, damaged, non-productive, structurally unsound, or otherwise unwanted plant material. The branch on the right is dead – it is woody and hollow.
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- Pruning means to lop or cut off any superfluous branches or shoots for better-shape and better growth. These look fuller every year – in part because of our regular pruning.
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- It doesn’t take long for the ground to fill with clippings – and this is just from the front of the hedge.
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- Once all the pruning is done, Pasang rakes up all the trimmed branches…
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- … And then Domi gathers them up and loads them onto the dump truck so they can be taken to the compost pile where they will decompose for next year’s garden dressing.
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- Here’s a look at the top of the newly pruned hedge – so straight all the way down.
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- Here’s a view from the side. They’re the perfect height and still disguises the fence very well – one cannot see it at all.
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- Here, one can see the beautiful layers of both the inside hedge and the outside hedge. They are doing so well and are a great contrast to the bright green lawn.
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- This growing hedge inside the pool fence is purple columnar beech trees, Fagus sylvatica ‘Dawyck Purple’ – these specimens are also doing very well. The pool is surrounded by about 170-trees along the inside fence line. These will grow to 40 to 50 feet in height and only 10-feet wide which makes them perfect for tight spaces and as an interesting hedge. Columnar beech trees are fastigiate meaning their branches slope upward more or less parallel to the main stem.
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- The deep colored, almost blackish leaves of these beech trees emerge in spring. In winter, the limbs and trunk with their smooth pale gray bark create an interesting framework. These are among of the most striking and beautiful of all columnar trees.
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- Beneath the hedge, I also grow Ajuga ‘Black Scallop’ – a unique perennial in the mint family Lamiaceae, with most species native to Europe, Asia, Africa, and southeastern Australia. Ajuga has lush dark burgundy-black foliage that blankets the ground when mature. Ajuga ‘Black Scallop’, also known as Black Scallop bugleweed, ground pine, carpet bugle, or just bugle, has very glossy foliage and bright blue flowers in late spring.
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- Another bugleweed is this ‘Chocolate Chip’ – also planted on the inside of the pool fence. Ajuga ‘Chocolate Chip’ is spreading, miniature chocolate foliage with lacy blue flowers in spring.
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- At one end of the pool I have five staddle stones. Staddle stones were originally used in the 17th and 18th centuries as support bases for granaries, hayricks, and game larders. They typically looked like giant stone mushrooms, but mine are square – a more rare and unique version. I wanted the pool to look as natural as possible where I could enjoy the panoramic views of the landscape with my family and friends. I’ve worked hard to develop the surrounding gardens and am so pleased with how well they’ve grown. This is one of my favorite summertime areas of the farm.
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