I have been busy all day tidying the yard. I had chunks of tree to cut down as I have two Mayday trees, (Prunus family), and they have been infected with Black Knot fungus. It means cutting out the infected branches periodically. I did a lot in spring, before the leafed out, but I see it has come back. The areas are high and this calls for the pole pruner. It has to be done or the fungus will girdle the branch and cause a die-off so the branch is toast anyhow. 

Aside from this, we took a trip into Canadian Tire to see what offers they had going on plants. Picked up a barberry bush, a hosta, a coral bells, a chrysanthemum, two lilies, an ivy and a sage plant. Some of these will be for inside, but I got all the outside plants spudded in. I also planted the hydrangea I had on my deck as I know it will not survive the winter otherwise. There was a nice spot where a rose had died, so it was just perfect.  I was hoping for some more ferns, but these were all gone. Still, next week might bring some more reductions and I would like some more shrubs around the fence. The cats really like shrubs. This is their area of privacy, where they can spy on the flying munchables.  

Perhaps tomorrow I will get more tree cut down and clear out my deck planters. The frost has been coming at night and the annuals are dying, so might as well get it done now. I would also like to do some weeding as I haven’t been able to get on the beds because of the constant rain/t-showers. Methinks I might cheat and spray some round-up on the bad areas.