pruning

Many gardeners are starting their fall garden and landscape clean-up - which is good and bad. Garden sanitation, if insects or diseases were a problem this year, is an important step to reduce problems next year. But we need to balance pest control with allowing habitat for beneficial insects and pollinators. So, how can that be done? 

Proper timing is one of the most important considerations for successful pruning. Getting the timing right helps ensure attractive, healthy, productive plants. Research has shown pruning wounds heal fastest when the cuts are made right before new growth begins. This knowledge guides pruning recommendations, with the goal of promoting fast wound closure and keeping plants as healthy as possible.

Many gardeners have questions at this time of year about spring pruning. So, here are some common questions you may have been wondering about and your answers.

The keys to pruning trees and shrubs are a basic understanding of pruning techniques and knowing when to prune plants. For more information on these topics, check out the additional resources below.

But it's also important to understand the variety of tools available to make the job easier and use them correctly. The best tool for the job is determined by the size of the plant material to be removed and its location.

Caring for a lawn and landscape is a lot of work! Mowing, fertilization, seeding and weed control in a lawn, along with planting, pruning and pest management in trees and landscape areas requires more time than many homeowners have available or the equipment to accomplish. Plus, the identification of weeds and pests often needs a professional's knowledge.

Winter days may be gloomy and dull, but you can give your home a touch of spring by forcing landscape branches to bloom indoors. Spring-flowering trees and shrubs set their flower buds the previous fall. Once the buds have been exposed to cold for several months (usually by mid-January), branches can be cut and forced to bloom early indoors - giving you the opportunity to enjoy a touch of spring.

Productive fruit trees with an abundance of high-quality fruit don't just happen. They result from good cultural practices, including pruning. However, fruit tree pruning is often neglected by the home gardener either due to a lack of pruning skills and knowledge, or due to fear plants will be damaged or killed by incorrect pruning.

After waiting all winter for a new growing season to start, when spring finally does arrive it seems to hit us hard and fast. Then before we know it, spring is gone and we’re in the middle of summer.

There are many tasks to accomplish in the spring landscape. To help you develop a plan and not get behind or miss your “window of opportunity”, here’s a quick rundown of common landscape projects listed in order of attack.

Late winter, February and March, is usually an excellent time to prune deciduous trees. Branches are easier to remove when not weighted down by leaves, and the tree's branching structure is easier to see.

However, following last season's severe drought conditions most landscape trees are stressed, so it's more important than ever to use a critical eye to assess the need for pruning this year, and, if pruning is necessary, use good pruning techniques to avoid causing additional tree stress.

An old horticulture practice of controlling plant growth in a flat plane against a solid surface or trellis has merit in today’s smaller landscapes. This is the art of espalier, pronounced ess-PAL-yer, or ess-PAL-yay. The word espalier is French, but is derived from the Italian word spalliera meaning “something to rest the shoulder against.” The technique of espalier is not the same as that of topiary, which creates a free-standing, 3-dimensional plant pruned to a decorative shape. Espaliered plants have only two dimensions, height and width, and most commonly have a support structure.