Saturday 25 February 2023

Dogwood Plants For Nothing Or Even Nowt!

 You know you must be losing it when you find yourself like a fool in the rain (Led Zep song) with a pair of secateurs in one hand listening to Saxon on WhatsApp on my mobile phone and taking Cornus or Dogwood cuttings.

Dogwood must be related to Salix or willow and root really easily.  In fact if you stick them in the ground they root. 


I cut them into 4 to 6 inch lengths and pushed them into compost filled plant pots.  If they all grow I will have 120 hedging plants/shrubs for the price of a bit of potting compost.

It's not a bad way to pass half an hour or so on a rainy Wednesday in a polytunnel with a torn plastic cover on the Irish Riviera in February.

Anyone else make their own hedge plants?

26 comments:

  1. No hedge plants for me Mr Greenfingers! I am growing marijuana this year owing to beer prices. Would you like a bag full? Send me your address and I will mail you half a kilo straight after the harvest. The seeds are from Morocco.

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    1. We bought some tomatoes yesterday in Lidl and they originated (grew) in Morocco. Perhaps they supply your Marijuana seeds?

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    2. I have looked for marijuana seeds in Lidl but they never seem to have them. Mind you I did pick up a jar of Colombian crack cocaine last month. Lovely stuff - much better than watching "Emmerdale".

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    3. I lost interest in Emmerdale when they removed the Farm word from the programme title. Oh to hear Amos the landlord saying: "Nay Mr Wilkes".

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    4. Try googling Emma Dale. There are lots of women with that name in the world. And the principal of Tuscarawas Valley Primary School in Ohio USA is called Corey Street.

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    5. Yes I Googled Emma Dale. There are lots of them in the UK especially. I believe Holly Oaks resides in Chester.

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    6. Oh-oh! I hate to tell you this Dave but I found this definition of "Northsider" in the online Urban Dictionary:-
      A somewhat dirty, slovenly animal, that resembles a human being. Typically from, or living on, the Northside of Dublin city or County Dublin, Ireland. North Dublin, is separated from the affluent district of South Dublin by the River Liffey - once clean with sparkling water, but polluted by northsiders who use it to wash themselves annually and dispose of their excrement in the river.

      Northsiders are not to be confused with the homeless tramps a class above the Northsider, that cross the city from the southside of Dublin to forage for scraps of food in the refuse in bins, left by the clean southsiders who are unfortunate enough to have to work on the Northside.

      Northsiders often eat their young, and have a distinct language of their own, thereby eliminating them from any normal profession, or decent social class.

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    7. Yes I know YP. I decided to call my blog Northsider because I live on the North side of our peninsula and also my garden is facing North.

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    8. Good job you didn't eat your sons.

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    9. I am not fond of social class differences like they have in England.

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    10. In The People's Republic of Yorkshire we are all equal but some are more equal than others.

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  2. I think they will make a lovely hedge. You will have to take photos for us. My mum used to take cuttings of favourite plants every time we moved and then would have them ready to go as a hedge along a front fence. They were most often geraniums because they will grow pretty much anywhere regardless of soil quality.

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    1. I like having plants in pots River because you can plant them any time of year unlike bare rooted plants. Thanks!

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  3. I've never heard of dogwood. I'm glad to hear you were happy in your torn plastic Portugal on a rainy day. Potting all those plants must have been very satisfying to enjoy yourself in those circumstances. And of course you had your music too

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  4. Cornus is the posh word for Dogwood Linda. It's a deciduous shrub with stunning red bark in the winter. It's good to have an hobby living in the countryside next to the sea because we rarely get to speak to people other than when we go to town shopping. The music helps too.

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  5. A dogwood hedge would be good here as we have a bare patch along the fence line. I must send the Head Gardener out on a forage.
    No rain here but perhaps it is coming our way?

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  6. If you buy one bushy Dogwood shrub and give it a good hair cut you will have pencil like cuttings to stick in the ground or plant pots. You can do the same with willow and they both root very easily. We have had no rain since last Wednesday. It makes such a difference being outside and not raining.

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  7. Ever grow fig trees?

    By the way Rick W was entertaining. Took some time to warm up. Catherine of Aragon didn’t have the punch that it should. It’s a tight track and didn’t come across that way. On balance I thought Wives was better than Arthur - maybe he should have done Arthur first.

    He did look at bit like Demis Roussos but I won’t hold that against him. All in all a good evening out spoilt only by highways deciding to close about every road from London to home!

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  8. No I have never attempted to grow fig trees Traveller. Yes London is a nightmare. I hate the Underground especially. I saw Eick with Yes at Loreley in 2017. He's a keyboard wizard and a giant like Fish. I like his Keith Emerson stuff.

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  9. I do need to get busy. I have all these plans that suddenly got pitched to the side. You make me feel very unproductive, man!

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  10. Hi Debby. There are You Tube videos of people planting Dogwoods to provide food for deer. I love it when cuttings strike roots and grow leaves for nothing more than a bit of compost or even your own homemade compost.

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  11. Well If I'm honest not me - but then IO don't need any hedging. That said, I am always rather in awe of your gardening diligence. A poly tunnel seems a good investment for those with green fingers

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  12. They say (who ever they are?) that the definition of an hedge is a statement of man's arrogance against nature.

    It's all down to interest Mark. I use to be obsessed with getting published but I achieved that like you did.

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  13. We like that saying about a hedge. Hedges are a pain, you have to cut them (well Tigger doesn't but he has overseen a lot of hedge cutting over the years - and F didn't plant any of them.) F seems to recall that dogwoods have rather flamboyant flowers - are we remembering a different plant?

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  14. I cut my hedges at least 5 times a year Tigger. They do flower but its ctheir red bark in winter which most people like them for because they are deciduous.

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