As fall turns towards winter, trees drop their leaves and reveal their bones. Their wooden skeletons please my eye, showing secrets only recently hidden from view. Behind the leafy curtain are buds and bark with life and texture, painted with drab and vibrant ochres, rusts, umbers, tans, greens, grays. Seeds and fruits still cling stubbornly, deaf to the call to disperse and drop. Nests large and small are revealed, works of engineering and optimism tucked and suspended and piled amongst the branches.
Alas, the enchantment is at times broken, when under the lifted veil is blunt evidence of pruning misdeads. In place of full healthy branches are stubs and tears and hacks. Little of their original nature remains in these mangled trees. Sadly, trees all the time are blindly chopped by chain saws and impatience, victims of paid and unpaid laborers who follow confusing and bad instructions.
Trees share with us their unique gifts: shade, nourishment, beauty, longevity. When trees are hacked by Uncle Joe with a chain saw and good intentions, well, hopefully lesson learned and the next year the damaged tree receives either a proper pruning or a merciful conversion to mulch and firewood. When some Acme Whackme entrepeneur is paid for plant butchery — growl! — that gets me into a boil. People who make money this way are thieves and should not be in business.
It takes practice to become good at pruning, and mistakes will be made, even by the well trained and informed. But there are some rules to follow that will get you on a good start.
• A good rule to start with: Work with the tree (plant). The less you fight how the tree wants to grow, the less work you will have. You can not control it, only guide and direct it. Every cut has a consequence.
• Another good rule: Use good-quality hand tools. If you have a chainsaw, use it sparingly and carefully — it is way too easy to cut too much, or in the wrong place.
One more rule: Study, be patient. There are good books and advice, and good professionals to work with. You can’t reattach a branch once you have cut it off.
Well, enough for now. Thanks for reading.
