In spite of our current cold spell, we should be thinking about what needs pruning in our gardens.
Pruning is far more essential than most folks realize because it keeps our plants cleaner. The first job is to remove any old, dead or diseased branches and to thin out heavy clusters of branches to allow in more sunlight and air. This tidy-up will greatly improve the health of our plants.
If it’s shade or privacy that you need, controlling the growth of branches will help immensely to improve both.
It’s also important to keep the height and width of your trees appropriate for the size of your property and the scale of your home.
With today’s more extreme weather patterns, heavy winds can topple trees onto houses and vehicles if their growth is not kept in check. Reducing the size of a tree and thinning it out to provide better airflow will prevent creating a windsail effect, thus making it far less susceptible to wind damage. For insurance purposes as well, you need to prevent your trees from becoming a hazard to your neighbours and their properties.
When dealing with larger trees, it’s important to contact professionals who have the right equipment to not only properly size your trees but also to chip and mulch the removed branches in order to keep your yard clean.
In addition to pruning small fruits and fruit trees for a more attractive appearance and manageable size, pruning can also train them to be more productive.
Learning how to prune and train fruit-bearing trees and shrubs is key to ensuring that they are kept at a height you can easily reach and that they are more worthwhile in terms of their contribution to your food budget. Fruit is far more expensive today, and productive fruiting plants have considerable value.
Adding beauty to our landscapes and neighbourhoods has proven to be incredibly important in terms of our health and well-being. This is where flowering shrubs and trees play such a vital role. Properly pruned trees will have more flowers over a longer period of time. They can also provide greater privacy and shade, as well as produce nectar and pollen for beneficial insects and hummingbirds.
I would wait for our current cold spell to dissipate before doing any home garden pruning, but, once the weather warms up, it will be an ideal time to begin, but you still have lots of time. Make sure you wait to prune roses until after the last hard frost.
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