Spring cleaning doesn’t just happen in the house. Just as in the previous video where I pruned and cleared our raspberry bush area, today I’m cleaning out last year’s end-of-season growth in our herb garden to allow for this year’s new growth. Leaving the end-of-year growth over the winter protected the plants for this year. But now it’s time to give them the best scenario for a successful harvest.
Some of the plants included in my perennial herb garden are cilantro, thyme, rosemary, lemongrass, and lavender. As you can see, I left it in a horrible condition over the winter. But the pruning and cutting back will now allow plenty of room for new growth allowing the plants to get the sun and water they’ll need.
Here’s the garden area after pruning.
The reward for your efforts now can be seen here – this is our herb garden at Halloween last year. We enjoyed its bounty all season and added to our sustainability.
While thinking about seed starters, don’t forget to clean up your planting beds. Mother Nature doesn’t need any help to create a wonderful bounty of foods for us to consume. But if we want to support Mother Nature and make it a lot easier on her, a little spring cleaning can always help! Just ask any mom you know if she would like some help with spring cleaning and you will know what I mean.
By trimming and pruning plants and cleaning out our planting areas, we increase the probability of a great harvest. A great harvest = sustainability.
Whatyou’ll need:
good pruning tools
long sleeve shirts and long pants
really thick, protective gloves
(In our case, the raspberry bushes are thorny)
protective glasses can protect your eyes from the sudden lash of a cane
hat or tying your hair back to keep from getting it tangled
TIP:
In the case of the raspberries, cut your cane at a slight angle about 2-3″ from the ground near the base of the plant. Remember, they are ‘ramblers,’ so they’ll spread out quickly once they start growing again.
Here’s a photo from one of our bushes last year (before pruning). The canes in the bin came from this bush. Your goal is to have it look like the end result in the video.
Your trim materials can be composted at home or check out your local municipal composting possibilities. It all makes great, rich compost.
Here’s to your safe pruning and anticipation of an awesome harvest!
Next up: I’ll clear out the herb garden in my front yard.
Normally I’m lazy and will buy my pizza from an amazing local pizzeria, Ecole’s or La Cucina. Both restaurants are owned by amazing Italian families who are fabulous at making pizza. Ironically though, when I get pizza from both pizzerias, I still must cut the crust.
Why? Well, as I’ve been making my own pizza now over the last year – thanks to COVID! I’ve learned a lot about dough. Pizza dough, for instance, is quite elastic, So a quick once over with a pizza cutter won’t actually fully cut the crust. In walks Ellie with her life hack that I never realized would work so neatly.
SCISSORS!
No, seriously, your kitchen shears can be used to cut almost anything. Some are so sharp they can cut through bone. Why not pizza?
Well, because frankly, I had never thought of it. I have a utensil specifically designed to cut pizza, so why wouldn’t that work. Short answer, because the dough is elastic and unless you press super hard on your pizza cutter and regularly sharpen it, that sucker isn’t cutting all the way through even the thinnest of thin-crust pizzas.
Recommendation: the next time you get your favorite pizza, be it from a pizzeria, grocery store, or you are making it fresh, use your kitchen shears or scissors to cut that pesky crust all the way through. Trust me – you will be thanking Ellie as much as I do with 2 kids who LOVE pizza!
Here’s a photo from one of our bushes last year (before pruning). The canes in the bin came from this bush. Your goal is to have it look like the end result in the video.