How to Prune Trees

Pruning keeps your plants in good shape–literally. This is usually done for ornamental garden trees to keep them healthy as well as attractive. The changing of seasons, especially when transitioning into the autumn season, means that all the shrubs and trees on your lawn will need a little bit of pruning. Are you going to burn all of you money into hiring tree care services when you can do this simple task by yourself?

This article provides you with the basics in maintaining your garden. These instructions that follow will be of great help especially to beginners with little to no pruning experience.

1. Before starting to prune, you must secure permission from local authorities to prevent any penalties unto you as well as your accomplices.
2. Wear your safety gear. As with any job, it is very important that you prioritize your safety over anything. Wearing protective gloves as well as safety glasses and a helmet will ensure that no sharp stray chips will cause you injuries.
3. Before starting, you should already have an idea of what you want the tree or shrub to look like. Take a step back and plan. A little more time spent thinking about the design is better than having months of unbalanced, misshapen ornamental trees on your backyard.
4. Start by removing all damaged, ailing, and dead branches. These shoots may endanger the integrity of the whole plant. Then follow up with the weak ones.
5. Tree care service professionals gave a healthy tip about cutting the shoots: You have to cut just over a healthy bud, an outward facing bud or branch if possible, to avoid branches growing in the brush, eventually promoting congestion and rubbing among the branches.
6. The cuts should be about a half of a centimeter above the bud. Cutting too close to the bud may cause its death. Cutting too far, on the other hand, may result to rotting and entry of infections into the branches.
7. If you are planning in removing larger, harder branches, an undercut should be done first, at about 20-30 cm away from the trunk. This is then followed with an overcut. Doing this will ensure the production of a clean stub because tearing of the bark is prevented from occurring.
8. When removing the stub, you should also do an undercut first, just outside a slight swelling that marks the joint of the branch to the trunk. This is then followed with another overcut which meets the undercut. You should avoid cutting the swelling (also called a branch collar) because this marks the area where healing begins.