Pruning is an essential gardening activity. Whether you have a small balcony garden or acres of rolling lawns, you’ll need to head out into the garden armed with your pruning shears at some point in the year.
When compared to other simpler gardening tasks, pruning can seem quite technical. And depending on the plant, it often is. This leads many gardeners to make a few easily avoidable mistakes that could end up damaging their plants long term. Many plants are incredibly resilient and will bounce back without trouble, but it’s far better to avoid these mistakes and get the process right the first time than deal with a greater issue later on.
The first mistake deals with the tools used. Whether you’re pruning your herbs or a massive hedge, your tools should always be two things – clean and sharp. Gardening tools can harbour bacteria or fungi from prior use that get transferred to your plants during your next pruning session. This is a surefire way to spread disease throughout your garden, so make sure your tools are always clean before you get going.
They should also be well sharpened. When you’re anxious to get out into the garden and spend time with your plants, it’s understandable that the last thing you want to do is spend your time sharpening tools. However, blunt tools only make the task of pruning more difficult. It requires more force from you to finish, especially when it comes to dense shrubs or trees, and it is likely to damage the plant stems or branches at the same time. This prevents healthy regrowth, which is often the goal of pruning in the first place.
With tools sharpened, you should be ready to get pruning, but you need to ensure you don’t do so at the wrong time. Different plants need to be pruned at different times and may require different levels of pruning throughout the year. In spring, a light trim to promote new growth is normally the go-to, while larger cutbacks are done in autumn. Understand the needs of the specific plant you’re dealing with before you get started. Take hydrangeas as an example – some hydrangeas form flower buds at the end of the season to prepare for flowering the following year. If you cut these buds off during an autumn prune, you will have no flowers next year.
When it comes to the level of pruning done, there is always the risk of pruning too much. Pruning essentially creates open wounds on your plants. They have the ability to heal and come back stronger, but this does take quite a bit of energy. If you prune too much while the plant is growing, it can become stressed and go into survival mode – not good for healthy growth. For other plants that can be cut down to the ground without trouble, this is not really a concern, as long as it’s done at the right time.
And finally, we have the mistake of pruning without a clear goal in mind. You should always have an idea of why you’re pruning before you start, to guide you as to when to prune, how much of the plant to prune, and the technique required to get it right. This will prevent you from making avoidable mistakes in the process or taking it that little bit too far and harming the plants you are trying to help. It doesn’t have to be a tedious or difficult process if you understand your intentions.
There are always those gardening tasks we cannot get away from. A little bit of work will be greatly rewarded when the family pops around for the festive season.
Prune rambling roses, feed, water well and add a layer of mulch. Stake dahlias as they grow and keep disbudding them by removing the side buds to encourage large flowers. Cut back chrysanthemums to ensure bushier growth and lots of flowering stems in autumn. Mulch with fresh compost and water well afterwards. Keep spraying deciduous fruit trees against fruit fly.
To avoid blight on tomatoes and mildew on cucumbers, squashes and pumpkins, water them early in the morning to give the leaves time to dry off before nightfall. Give citrus trees their mid-season feed of granular fertiliser. Spread evenly over the drip line 20 – 30cm away from the stem. Mulch and water well.
Planting seed potatoes in December and January will produce a harvest in April and May for storing and eating during winter. Weed the garden. After weeding place a layer of organic mulch over every last inch of soil. Mulching not only saves water and your time when you’re desperately busy with other tasks, but will also provide a professional and well cared for look and will display existing plants to their best advantage.
Add swathes of gauras, angelonias, cupheas, lavender, Plectranthus ‘Mona Lavender’, bacopas, perennial verbena and pentas – none of these need excessive pampering or watering!
Large vegetables (tomatoes, brinjals, squashes etc.) should be watered deeply twice a week while seedlings and shallow-rooted veggies (Swiss chard, lettuce etc.) need less water more frequently, even daily in hot December temperatures. Support fruit-bearing tomato stems to prevent the stems from breaking or bending. Use soft ties and loop the tie around the stake and the stem in a figure of eight. Fertilise fruiting crops when they start to flower and leafy vegetables after picking.
Remove weeds that compete for water. Renew mulch if necessary.
5 minutes to spare
Check quick-bearing veggies (beans, marrows etc.) each day and harvest so that fruit doesn’t grow too big or too tough.
10 minutes to spare
Start sowing cool-season crops (cabbage, cauliflower etc.) in seed trays. Keep them out of direct sun but in good light and make sure the soil is consistently moist during germination.
Good idea…
Grow loose-leaf lettuce in the shade of taller plants like runner beans, tomatoes and brinjals.
Choosing from the various pruning and cutting tools on the market depends on the work that needs doing in your garden. Smaller jobs, such as cutting back shrubs and thinning branches can be tackled using a small hand pruner. Larger pruning jobs, such as cutting through thick tree limbs, requires more sophisticated tools such as loppers or saws. The right tool can save stress on you wrist and allows you to make clean cuts that keep your plants healthy, rather than opening bark up to pests and diseases. However, in winter don’t prune everything in sight as different plants need pruning at different times of the year.
There are three basic types of pruners or loppers: anvil, ratchet and bypass which are differentiated by the type of blade.
Anvil pruners feature a single, straight blade that uses a splitting action to cut down on the stem.
Ratchet pruners are similar to anvil pruners but they have a mechanism that allows cutting in stages.
Bypass pruners act like a pair of scissors with two curved blades that make a clean cut.
Pruning is the most important winter task for your plum trees. Here’s how to do it properly to ensure optimal fruit production in summer.
Plums need to be pruned in July and August to ensure top-quality fruit is produced consistently each and every season. Many trees in home gardens are neglected and end up being an unproductive waste of time and space. But older trees can be resurrected with a severe winter pruning, cutting back hard to about 1m in height. However, it’s best to give your trees a good start in life. Plant out young trees of the latest and best cultivars to ensure top-quality fruit production, and focus on pruning correctly from the beginning. Follow these simple pruning instructions for the best results. After winter pruning, spray the dormant trees with lime sulphur. The tools you will need are sharp secateurs, long-handled loppers and a pruning saw. Make sure that all tools are sharp and in good order, and disinfect the tools after pruning each tree to prevent the spread of infectious diseases.
What to do
During late winter, prune back the central leader stem (a) at a height of 1.5m. Cut back laterals (b) by half to downward facing buds. Remove all lower branches below 50cm (c).
In summer, after fruit has been harvested, remove part of the new season’s growth to thin out the body of the tree. Leave 15- 20cm of the new season’s growth on the tree.
During subsequent winter seasons, prune back the main stem (d) by two thirds of the previous season’s growth. Continue with this practice annually.
Continue to cut back each summer after fruiting has been completed. Remove the new season’s growth tips, retaining 15-20cm of the new wood. Prune out any weak or unproductive shoots
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