Winter is a really good time to inspect and prune deciduous trees. (That means trees that lose their leaves completely.) When the tree is naked like that you can get an easier look at what's going on with its branches, although it might be a little tough to spot which ones are dead.
It's important to make the cuts the right way, so that you don't risk harming your tree. Here's a link to a really good guide on how to best go about this:
http://www.arborday.org/trees/nineThings.cfm
You could even use this as a pretty decent guide on how to properly prune some types of woody shrubs, or semi-deciduous trees, which is much more of what we have out here on the west coast .
My mom and I have laughed a lot over the years about, well, a certain type of men that somehow feel they must cut everything back to a bloody nub. There are a lot of those men out there and men, you know who you are. Overzealous would be a euphemistic way of putting it. In fact, my dad, may he rest in peace, was one of them. You put pruning shears in their hands and it becomes a deadly weapon of mass destruction. The problem is, they just can't seem to stop! Once those first cuts are made, they just keep cutting, chopping... probably in their own minds they're 'just neatening up the edges'... until.... all that's left is some kind of a pitiful, nubby stump.
As someone who has seen a lot of those poor, overly-shorn victims over the years, I will say it is a testament to their durability and resilience, because they usually seem to come back anyway... but perhaps some of you might be prevailed upon to show a little mercy and be a bit more, uh, restrained in your pruning efforts the next time around... think about how you would feel if you were that bush or tree!
1 comment:
Go easy on the chop-happy guys, will you!
Women are just as capable of the over-whack as us fellows! For instance, my neighbour, “Mrs. G.”, who experimentally pruned her overgrown jacaranda with a late-model Honda Accord. The result wasn’t half bad.
On our property, I trim and shape with the freedom and feeling of an Impressionist Painter. A little lob here, a smart clip there, and an hour later... a perfectly unique work of Art!!
Oh, and thanks for the ‘arbor’ link, that’s a great site. ;)
When I needed to trim one of my avocado trees, I went to this site:
www.ucavo.ucr.edu/General/PruningSmallTree.html
-very helpful!
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