THERE’S STILL TIME TO PRUNE
The sap will be rising soon, so get pruning pronto!
THE days may still be dark and cold, but we are almost a month past the shortest day and life will soon be stirring in the garden. If you haven’t done all your seasonal pruning yet, it’s time to get a march on things.
Most deciduous trees and shrubs are pruned in winter when they are dormant and their sap has retreated down inside their trunks. This is because they ‘bleed’ less when their sap isn’t flowing, and pruning helps them regenerate and put on healthy new growth.
From a gardener’s perspective, pruning also lets us create tidy trees and shrubs, getting rid of dead, damaged, diseased and spindly branches, as well as those that are rubbing, crossing and generally congesting the centre of the tree. Remove these and you improve airflow through and around the tree, which reduces the risk of fungal problems. Most mature and well-established
trees need just a gentle trim at this time of year to keep them in shape. Free-standing apple and pear trees are prime pruning material and will fruit better if kept in good shape. Some other shrubs, such as potentillas, require a gentle runningover with shears to remove the ends of flowered stems, though bushes that have been neglected may need cutting back hard to get them back into shape and improve their blooming.
For a continued good harvest of soft fruit such as currants and gooseberries, remove old, fruited stems from the base and prune established bushes to an open shape.
Hard pruning usually encourages healthy plants to regenerate well, but you may lose some flowering in the first summer afterwards.
Always remember to ‘look twice and cut once’. It is easy to get carried away, but once a branch is off it can’t be replaced and the tree may take years to grow back.
Also remember your own safety. Wear sturdy gloves with a good grip, and head and eye protection if necessary. Keep your tools clean and sharp so they cut easily, are less likely to slip, and won’t spread disease from one plant to the next.
If the pruning job is a large or difficult one, enlist help or bring in a team of reputable professionals.
One final point is what to do with your prunings? If you have a wood burner or fire, chop, store and season larger branches for burning and harvest smaller ones for kindling.
I leave some smaller branches piled in a corner of the garden as a haven for wildlife and invertebrates, then hang up the twiggiest pieces so they dry and can be used as pea canes in summer.
“Remember to look twice and cut once”