Top tips for trees – what you really need to know before you prune your trees

You may not intend to prune your trees yourself.

But even if you employ a tree surgeon, there are key facts you need to know about tree maintenance.

This will help you find a good tree surgeon and get the best results.

Because pruning trees isn’t just a question of cutting them down to the size you want.

You can safely reduce the height of some trees, but it’s very difficult to reduce their width.  And yet it’s exactly the opposite with other trees.

And if you prune too much off many trees, they’ll often respond by re-doubling their growth. You could end up with much more tree rather than less. This can happen very quickly. And the shape isn’t likely to look as good.

Like most gardeners, I have a mix of trees in my garden. Many were planted by my predecessors. There are two evergreens, both of which have grown rather too large.

I also have a number of deciduous trees of different ages, shapes and style. So I engaged tree surgeons About Trees to check all my trees and reduce the size of the larger ones.

And I asked Wayne Elwell of About Trees to explain what you need to know before you prune your trees.

(Disclosure: I engaged About Trees at the normal commercial fee and only invited Wayne for interview after that had been agreed. I think it’s worth explaining this, as sometimes there are discounts or free services involved when companies are featured on blogs etc. But not in this case.)

When should you prune your trees?

Autumn and winter are a good time to prune most trees, because they’re not growing. Some trees, such as the prunus (cherry) family should be pruned in summer.

You can look up the ideal time to prune a particular kind of tree online.

But most gardeners agree that there is an ‘ideal’ time to do work. And then there’s