Pruning plants -- and priorities

Plus, flower suggestions for hot, sunny, deer-plagued gardens

Hi, guys!

The weather gods must have heard me complaining last week because, right afterward, the temperature rose mercifully into the 50s.

So, naturally, I got up on a ladder and pruned a 10-foot-tall Euonymus.

The pruning was the easy part. Cleaning up all the branches and debris wasn’t any fun. But the shrub has been tamed and will be ready to show off when it comes out of dormancy in a few weeks.

Show off your stuff!

Send in photos of your pruning results, first spring shoots and blossoms, and planting progress, and you could be featured in next week’s newsletter (bonus points if you’re in the picture)!

Pruning is a peaceful, contemplative activity that offers the satisfaction of tangible, visible results. It was just what I needed because I’ve been feeling anything but peaceful and contemplative lately, mainly because I haven’t been able to distance myself from the 24-hour, doom-and-gloom news cycle that has become part of my identity from 30+ years spent working in newsrooms.

So, last week, I did the unthinkable: