Lewis Hill - Pruning Made Easy: A Gardeners Visual Guide to When and How to Prune Everything, from Flowers to Trees

A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing. One day a friend invited me into his backyard to point out a badly mutilated viburnum. I read somewhere that all shrubs should be pruned occasionally, but I really didnt know how, he said apologetically. Probably his plant would survive and look fine after a few more growing seasons, but his cuts could have killed a less sturdy plant.

Dont prune just for the sake of pruning. Pick up the clippers only to correct a faulty growing condition, to prevent a future problem, or to stimulate or redirect new growth. My friends bush likely didnt need pruning at all, since viburnums grow quite well on their own. If youre growing raspberries, however, pruning is absolutely mandatory or the patch deteriorates and eventually disappears. Understand the growing habits of each of your plants, and decide exactly what you want them to do for you.

In spite of the long history of pruning, however, some people still question the wisdom of it. Should we interfere with the natural scheme of things? How can we improve on Nature? A walk in the woods shows that trees grow to magnificent beauty all by themselves.

The answer to these questions, I feel, is that we dont live in the wilderness anymore. We arent able to spend all our days foraging for food. Instead were more likely to live on tiny lots where our trees and shrubs must provide beauty, protection, food, and companionship, yet still not crowd us off our claim. We can no longer abandon our berry patch or orchard when it gets overgrown and cross the ridge to look for another homesteading plot. We cant move on just because the spruces we planted as a windbreak have begun to shut out the sun and view.

In other words, Nature is too leisurely and wasteful for our modern way of life. Although its function is to provide a healthy balance of plant and animal life, the reality is that humans upset the balance long ago. These days we cant let our trees grow to full size, die, and rot peacefully for decades on the ground. We must, instead, give our plantings careful attention so that we can get the best possible use from them. We have to fertilize, prune, and protect them, and sometimes, when they have outlived their usefulness, remove them before they become a hazard. When we do these jobs we are not interfering but rather working closely with Nature.

Ive met many gardeners who dont feel completely comfortable about pruning and never take off quite enough wood, because they are nervous about hurting the plant. They know that plants look nicer and that fruit trees bear much better when they have been pruned, but they fear that each cut may be painful to the tree and that the whole idea is a bit sinful. The thought of keeping a tree sheared to a runty 4 feet when it might otherwise grow to 80 feet makes them feel guilty and uneasy. The fact is that pruning, when properly done, strengthens rather than weakens the tree.