Shovel Pruning: Out with the Old

You can’t make an omelet without breaking eggs.

It’s hard for some people to let go of that which they don’t need, even to their detriment. Some people suffer from CHAOS (can’t have anyone over syndrome) because of their clutter. Others spend years in divorce court, rather than quickly cutting the legal ties to their spouse.

And so it is hard to get rid of plants that haven’t worked out: lilacs that get more mildew than blooms, roses that freeze to the ground, groundcovers that don’t cover much ground, and so on. Women, especially, tend to see the potential in things: "If I just sprayed, or fed, or mulched, or moved the plant, it would really take off." Maybe. Sometimes, knowledge or even benign neglect really will help: some people kill the toughest plants by spraying or overwatering them; others prune roses so hard that they don’t bloom. Other plants need coddling. If you love the plant, you can baby it, but remember that certain plants aren’t suited to your area. Ferns, rhododendrons, and rambling roses, for example, won’t live up to their potential in much of the West. If you have tried different things to grow a plant without success, the next step is to shovel prune: dig up the plant and get rid of it.

Shovel pruning doesn’t have to mean waste. You can give the plant to a friend, exchange it for another plant with a neighbor, or bag it or pot it and put it by the sidewalk with a note that reads "free."

Not only will someone else get a free plant, you’ll have a bare spot that really will have potential. A few tips for growing a great plant there:

• If you are replacing one rose bush with another, remove all the soil and replace it with new. Otherwise, the new rose may suffer from "rose sickness," a mysterious condition where a new rose won’t thrive where another one lived.
  
• If no plant has ever done well in a particular spot, don’t waste your time or money on another plant. There are a few spots in my yard where even weeds don’t grow; perhaps the soil is contaminated. (Some places in other people’s yards get waterlogged and are thus unsuitable for certain plants.) I put decorative stones or pots there.
  
• Note the sun exposure and type of soil of the site, and get a plant that is suited to those conditions. Remember that sun exposure changes with the seasons.
  
• Thoroughly till the soil and amend it if necessary. Keep an eye on the new plant, especially during its first year in the ground.