Spring Pruning.
As in the garden, and life.
Welcome to the Art of Growing Food newsletter. I write about artful growing tips for cooks who love to garden. You are receiving this newsletter because you are a free or paid subscriber. Thank you! - Ellen Ecker Ogden
“A garden in winter is the absolute test of a true gardener.” - Rosemary Verey
Hello Everyone.
One thing I know for sure, March is the best time for pruning trees and shrubs. Before the leaves show any sign of green, it’s time to cut back old growth to prepare for the new. To Prune: “Verb. To cut back parts to shape for more fruitful growth” according to the Webster Dictionary, although in my first search for the word, it was all about dried plums. It seems clear enough, cutting back all the superfluous and unwanted branches of a tree or shrub. As in the garden, and life.
I’ve researched how to prune and I’ve learned that there are no easy answers. Special tools, techniques, and seasons exist, while every tree, shrub, and perennial requires a slightly different strategy. Some prefer spring pruning, others fall, just after flowering or before. The one thing that is universally agreed is that you can’t be too timid. That’s why I hired a professional arborist.
This week, he arrived in a large truck with a chipper, two sets of V-shaped ladders, a pair of long loppers, clippers, and a small chainsaw. Starting with the ornamental crab apple tree in front, he trimmed hundreds of water sprouts, thin branches that stick straight up in the air like hair on a cartoon character. Water sprouts and fruit trees are synonymous, the more you prune the more appear the following year. Yet heavy pruning is necessary each spring for fruit production, and soon large limbs came down.
Next, he tackled a thick stand of heritage lilacs, an unnamed heirloom variety planted a hundred years ago near the back porch. Lilacs are typically pruned after they bloom, and over the years I have nipped away at them with clippers. I’ve read books and watched multiple videos but never confident enough to cut them back as fully as suggested. Taking a deep breath, I decided to forgo bloom season this year and permitted the use of a chainsaw. The old growth was gone in less than a minute, leaving behind a large gap. “You’ll see new vigorous growth and blooms in three years,” he assured me. Way too late to feel any regret.
Next came the heirloom apple tree, a focal point of my landscape, although most visitors might not agree. Twisted and bent over at the midline, hollowed out in the trunk, it is not the most beautiful specimen. “I love this tree.” He said, smiling widely as we both stood back to admire the way he had pruned the top branches. He makes sure every branch left behind is sturdy enough to hold fruit.
Trees are no longer just ornamental; they have become environmental icons in our landscape. What we grow, and how we maintain the specimens that surround us every day, impact wildlife and the ecosystems that our gardens support. We now know about mother trees, and how plants nurture each other through underground messaging systems. We know that certain trees support more host insects that in turn feed birds. We are planting more natives in our perennial gardens and tighter plantings in the kitchen garden to allow leaves to touch reducing weeds, and keeping the soil moist.
“Gardens are the result of a collaboration between art and nature.” – Penelope Hobhouse
Before making any cut, the arborist first observes the shape of the tree and makes a plan about which branches to trim. The arborist can’t always explain how to prune or why he cuts certain limbs, but once he is in the middle of the tree, it is all about instinct. I watch as he comes down the ladder and stands back to look again at his work. He believes in big cuts, the more limbs that are cut or pruned the better it will grow. It might not seem logical, but it triggers the roots to produce more leaves and the remaining limbs will grow stronger.
The one true thing I know about gardening is that trust is the operative word. When I first began to garden, it seemed all about methodology around seed starting, growing, and nurturing plants. But as shrubs and trees that I planted years ago mature, I am more focused on cutting back the old growth to make way for the new. It seems both logical and obvious, that pruning is a metaphor for life.
Welcome Spring Equinox! Maybe it’s time to carefully edit out what is no longer necessary, to make room for new growth to appear in myself, too. Cutting back on activities such as lectures and classes. I am making room to write my new book and making plans to visit more gardens this summer. Tell me, what changes are you making this year?
From my garden to yours.
Ellen O.
Ellen Ecker Ogden is a Vermont-based food and garden writer, and author of five books on garden designs with recipes. She is at work writing a new book, Love & Arugula, and designing a plan for her kitchen garden.
“An optimistic gardener believes that whatever goes down must come up.”
“Taking a deep breath, I decided to forgo bloom season this year and permitted the use of a chainsaw. The old growth was gone in less than a minute, leaving behind a large gap. “You’ll see new vigorous growth and blooms in three years,” he assured me. Way too late to feel any regret.” I feel this choice. I find pinching blooms and cutting back hard in and outside the garden.