With the great improvement in the weather this week, I have taken advantage of the warmer, even sunnier, weather to do a bit of gardening.

I wouldn’t claim to be a very good gardener, especially where some tasks are concerned, but it is lovely getting out in the (fresh) air, and seeing the house from the outside!

I’ve decided, right or wrong, that it’s time to prune roses and some other plants.

When you look at books on pruning, as I do, because I have no in depth knowledge or experience of the activity – they talk about ideal times to prune the various plants, as well as the way to do it.

As for timing, the roses seem to require Late Winter for their haircut (I guess mine will be late Spring), whereas the Tree Peony I have needs to be pruned in early Spring!

Being pragmatic, I’ve decided that this week must be late Winter, and as it’s quite warm it’s also early Spring.

Anyway, I notice that the Council has had its rose bushes pruned since autumn, and they are always good to look at.

I have a poor track record with pruning roses, on a couple of accounts.

• They are so damned prickly that I feel that I’m waging a war with them, rather than giving them a short back and sides. It’s a blood bath, not just a sap bath! I ended up with lacerated lower arms before I was satisfied with the cut, and I managed to fill the brown bin with the cut bits, making it so overfull that I had to apply a lot of pressure to get the lid closed. Probably they won’t come out of the bin when they are upended by the bin lorry – and I’ll have to cut them into smaller sections, entailing another bloodbath.
  • Yes of course I should have worn more appropriate clothing – though I did buy some new tough gloves, enabling my hands to escape any damage. Unfortunately they didn’t have long enough wrist protection – hence the major scratches I endured.
• Having returned to the house after the battle, and reviewed my work,  I now feel that I should have been a bit more radical. The standard roses still have quite a big head (as do I), and could do with a bit more taken off. So it looks like I need to have a part 2 of the battle, but surely it can’t be as brutal for me?

We’ll see!

PS The Peony was fine – didn’t even put up a fight!