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OK Gardeners - How Bad is This?
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<blockquote data-quote="Marguerite" data-source="post: 407030" data-attributes="member: 1991"><p>We have a Saturday morning radio show here which I listen to every week. For an hour, they have gardening talkback with one of a number of top Aussie horticulturalists taking calls. This program has developed the phrase "boy prune" to apply to the way some males will overdo a pruning job. It's a bit like Tim "the Tool Man" Taylor with an over-powered new garden implement - they get carried away playing with the shears and go way too far. The boy prune - it usually involved cutting something back way too far. It's a phrase that is part of the Aussie language now.</p><p></p><p>Your husband is a classic boy pruner. Some plants will do OK and come back, some won't. You need a system with him to absolutely prevent him doing any of this in your absence. If he were a professional tree-trimmer, he would have to stick to "only cut back the trees with a yellow cross painted on the trunk - do not touch anything else". </p><p></p><p>husband trimmed a hedge for me. He knows how I react if he boy-prunes, so he tends to err the other direction. Over time this hedge was getting too high so I asked him specifically to cut it back hard, to his shoulder height. Of course, this is hard on the hedge but so be it. However, yesterday I went out and it looked like the entire inside of the hedge had serious die-back - only it turned out to be prunings that had not been removed, they had fallen inside the hedge and turned brown. husband pulled it all out and the hedge is actually OK. Phew! </p><p></p><p>Seriously - the best way to avoid a boy-prune is to get to it first. You tell him you are the garden boss, he is your employee. If he fouls up, he doesn't get 'paid'. Then lock up the garden tools and keep the keys on your person. Only let him play with them under supervision.</p><p></p><p>Marg</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Marguerite, post: 407030, member: 1991"] We have a Saturday morning radio show here which I listen to every week. For an hour, they have gardening talkback with one of a number of top Aussie horticulturalists taking calls. This program has developed the phrase "boy prune" to apply to the way some males will overdo a pruning job. It's a bit like Tim "the Tool Man" Taylor with an over-powered new garden implement - they get carried away playing with the shears and go way too far. The boy prune - it usually involved cutting something back way too far. It's a phrase that is part of the Aussie language now. Your husband is a classic boy pruner. Some plants will do OK and come back, some won't. You need a system with him to absolutely prevent him doing any of this in your absence. If he were a professional tree-trimmer, he would have to stick to "only cut back the trees with a yellow cross painted on the trunk - do not touch anything else". husband trimmed a hedge for me. He knows how I react if he boy-prunes, so he tends to err the other direction. Over time this hedge was getting too high so I asked him specifically to cut it back hard, to his shoulder height. Of course, this is hard on the hedge but so be it. However, yesterday I went out and it looked like the entire inside of the hedge had serious die-back - only it turned out to be prunings that had not been removed, they had fallen inside the hedge and turned brown. husband pulled it all out and the hedge is actually OK. Phew! Seriously - the best way to avoid a boy-prune is to get to it first. You tell him you are the garden boss, he is your employee. If he fouls up, he doesn't get 'paid'. Then lock up the garden tools and keep the keys on your person. Only let him play with them under supervision. Marg [/QUOTE]
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