Tree pruning
Pruning is choosing which branches come off, not seeing how much you can take. Done properly you should struggle to tell anyone has been.
Best timeNovember to February, summer for plums and cherries
Most of the work is lifting a crown off a shed or a fence, bringing a limb back from a window, or opening a tree up so light gets through it. I cut back to a proper growth point and leave the collar intact, because that is what lets the tree seal the wound instead of sitting there rotting.
Timing matters more than people expect. Most deciduous trees are best done between November and February, when they are dormant and you can actually see the shape. Plums, cherries and the rest of the Prunus family are the exception: those get pruned in summer, because a winter cut is an open door to silver leaf.
Before anything comes off I check two things. Whether there are birds nesting in it, and whether the tree is protected. A tree with a Tree Preservation Order on it, or any tree of size in a conservation area, needs consent from the council before the work goes ahead. Your council will usually tell you within a couple of days, and I would far rather wait for that answer than land you with a fine.
Tree pruning, before and after
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Questions people ask
- How do I find out if my tree is protected?
- Ring the tree officer at your local council, or check the planning pages on their website. They hold the Tree Preservation Order register and the conservation area boundaries. It is a quick question and the answer is usually back within a day or two.
- What time of year should pruning happen?
- November to February for most trees, while they are dormant and bare. Plums and cherries are the exception and want doing in summer. Apples and pears are happiest pruned in winter.
- Will pruning hurt the tree?
- Not if the cuts are in the right place and you are not taking too much. Bad pruning is what hurts trees: stubs left to rot, flush cuts that take the collar off, and topping, which gives you a thicket of weak shoots and a shorter-lived tree.
- Do you climb?
- No. I work from the ground, which covers most garden trees comfortably. Anything taller, anything over a house, and anything that needs roping down is a tree surgeon’s job.