Our first ever attempt at pruning!

It occurred to us the other day that this is the first time we’ve ever actually owned trees… and we’re definitely learning how much work is involved with them!  

A dry day last weekend meant we had no excuse but to get out there with the extendable pole saw and have a stab at pruning the apple and pear trees in the orchard… We’ve had lots of great advice about how to prune them, and the pictures in various books and websites make it look so easy. But our trees look nothing like those! So many crossing branches, apple canker disease on every tree, and branches that are growing in very funny directions. Some of our fruit trees have grown so big (or were planted too close to each other) so they’re literally growing into each other. And we were very conscious of the advice not to cut too much off in one year – although once you start cutting bits you think are too congested, it’s quite hard to stop!! 

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We’ve ended up focusing on the diseased parts and cutting those out first, then separating the trees from each other. We tried to follow the advice of clearing enough that a bird could fly through the branches without getting stuck (although probably not one of our garden birds, as they seem to be VERY fat now!!), but that was much harder in practice than it sounds! At least there’s a bit more air getting to the top branches now, and we hope the apple canker hasn’t spread too far. Vaccine-permitting, we’re hoping for some help with the plum trees, as one of those really has got overgrown! 

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And as with everything here, one job crossed off the list just means another one is added… we have a mountain of branches to cut up into firewood! I suspect that might wait until warmer weather though… 

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