First Apple Tree Prune

Last year I pruned our standard rose for the first time, this is one of those jobs that strikes fear in most of us non gardeners. One you tube video later I had the basics and off I went and had a go.

Pruning standard rose post

This year I needed to tackle our apple tree. This apple tree was given to us by the owner of the company Mr MC&W worked for when we had our first baby. It is a small apple tree, it started in a pot, then we stuck it in the ground and pretty much left it for 8 years. Every year we commented on the fact it looks a mess and needs sorting. This year I took a deep breath and decided it was time to have a go at pruning.

Thanks to the amazing twitter gardening gang I got a huge amount of advice and there are two courses I want to go on. The main advice was dead, diseased and crossing over. But what came over loud and clear was have a go do not be scared.

So I grabbed my best and sharpest secateurs, a small saw and went to look at my apple tree. As you can see its a mess. Poor tree I felt sorry for it and guilty about not being brave sooner.

Look at all these crossed branches that needed to be pruned back.

The first step was to look at the tree, when taking time to look what was not clear becomes clear. I started with a few crossing branches. Tackling those gave me some confidence. I stood back and again found some dead parts to be removed. Standing back each time and observing I ended up taking quite a bit off. I wanted to take more but lets see how this does and I can do more next year.

I will keep you updated to see how it goes, but hopefully if I can be brave and have a go you can as well.

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