The art of handcrafting your perfect garden.
What is pruning?
Pruning is the technique of cutting off and removing unwanted, unsafe or unhealthy parts of shrubs, trees and ornamentals for plant health or aesthetics. The tools used are very important and highly specialized because of the importance of making proper, safe cuts. For example, would you use a steak knife to cut a branch or a saw to cut a steak? Seems rather ridiculous to make that point, but let’s get real, sometimes people will use improper tools because that’s what’s available. Below, I needed a manicure, but didn’t have the proper tool!
What is a proper cut? Is there such a thing?
Yes indeed, there is such thing as a proper cut. It is very unhealthy and can be detrimental to the plant you are pruning to perform improper cuts. So, what is a “proper” cut? As you’ll see in the illustration below, as I used my VERY SHARP hand pruners, you cut just above the leaves or buds (if in winter) or at the “crotch” or “Y’. Think about your hand for a minute. If you open it up wide and you want to make a proper cut, you would cut at the knuckle of the finger or at the “Y” where your thumb meets your hand. I know it’s not a nice thing to picture, but it’s a great description.
Why are proper cuts so important?
Proper pruning is so important not only to the health of the plant material, but also the appearance. We all care how we look and try to keep ourselves healthy and we should care about our expensive landscapes as well. If you use the proper tools as mentioned above, you get nice clean, sharp cuts, but if you use improper, dull equipment, your cuts will tear or rip and never truly heal properly. Those bad cuts don’t look good at all, but also will invite disease in…and that ain’t good!
Which tools are good, bad, and ugly?
Your best tools, and we use these tools for any job we are pruning at, are tools that are sharp and clean, and we do all our pruning by hand. Using a good, expensive pair of hand pruners is so worth the cost, trust me. Although I won’t endorse a brand name, don’t buy them at a big box store. Purchase your highly specialized equipment from a gardening store or online. Price in this case, equals quality. So, you have your hand pruners, now get a quality pair of long handled loppers, long handled pruners for unreachable areas and a quality hand saw/sheath with Japanese blades…they are the BEST. Also, you for the most part, should never use power sheers for your hedges and shrubs as they leave those unhealthy tears and rips. Use very sharp hand sheers as you see below. And don’t forget a ladder just in case.
Safety? Who cares?!
I care, and so should you! Gloves are very important as not only do they keep your hands clean, but they can stop the blade of the pruners from going through in many cases. Helmets are very important as well, especially if you’re off the ground on a ladder. I have fallen off a 6’ ladder onto frozen ground…thankfully, I was wearing my helmet otherwise, I most def would have had a concussion or worse. If using a chain saw, keep both hands on the saw, no one-hand showing off please and wear chaps! These will more than likely stop you from cutting your leg with the very sharp chain. Oh, don’t forget to sterilize your equipment between each tree or shrub. If there happens to be disease, you don’t want to inadvertently spread it to a healthy specimen.
What’s the skinny on hand sheering vs power sheering?
As talked about above, sheering your shrubs using hand sheers is sooo much better for your shrubs than if you used power sheers. Those power sheers, unless brand new, dull easily. Do they still cut? Yes, but they tear and rip. If you use sharp hand sheers, you’ll have nice clean, sharp cuts, plain and simple. Yes the pruning will take a bit longer, but the benefits far outweigh the time to do them. With practice, you can zip through them, just like I do. Look at the before and after photos below. These were all done BY HAND!
Summing it up.
Do all your pruning by hand! Use quality, sharp equipment, meant for your purposes. Be safe and aware of what you are doing and enjoy being an artist. If you follow these tidbits, everything will look great.
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