Surgery

Sunny and very cold.  It was in the teens when I got up, and by mid day it was still cold, in the 20s.

Dr. Dirt got outside to perform surgery on the bisected Japanese maple.  It was sort of a botch job, but it's done.

First, it was cold out there, not pleasant to be working outside.  But if the two halves are going to fuse, I want them pressed together before spring sap starts flowing

Second, I trampled all over the kinnikinnik and the emerging snowdrops at the feet of this maple, pretty much destroying them in a circle of wet mud and mulch.

Third, every move I made in the canopy of the low little maple snapped off branches.  I had to get right in close, and wedge my body inside the branches to get any pressure on the two trunk halves, and I just kept snapping off branches and twigs.

It was really a two man job: one to hold pressure on the trunk parts to keep them together, and one to tighten the black plastic cord.  But I did it myself, using a vise.  The vise directly on the bark is not good, but when the weather warms up, I'll loosen them a little (the plastic cord should hold the pressure), then put some cloth inside the vise heads to soften the grip, and then re-tighten.

Maybe this will work, maybe not.

Despite the cold, the hydrangea macrophylla 'Blau Doneau' in the large pot inside the garage is leafing out.  It's way too early and way too cold; I'll still have to leave it in there for another two months.  The garage keeps it from freezing, but it's awfully dark in there.  The pot is too big to keep on the enclosed porch, where it would stay protected but get more light.