Pruning Tools and Garden Maintenance

Loppers are used for branches that are too large to be cut with secateurs. A saw is needed for even larger branches. Always use good quality tools and make sure they are always sharp. Poor quality tools will fall apart rather fast, and blunt tools just make the task harder.

Proper pruning.

In order to maintain the overall good health of your plants, cut out any diseased, weak or dead growth.

For diseased growth, it pays to get a good gardening book, or some reference material, in order to identify diseases before madly cutting anything out.

For weak growth, well, here you must make an educated appraisal of the overall look of the subject plant.By example, if what you see is mainly pencil thickness branches, and here and there, twigs, or stuff that looks like hair pins - get rid of the twigs. Or, if the majority of the branches are good and solid, but there are a number of spindly ones in there - keep the solid stuff. This is not an exact science and if you miss a few, or just cannot decide - leave it. By observing what happens in the following season, you will see how these things grow - and be prepared for the next season.

Dead growth can be tricky sometimes, so let me hasten to add - just because a branch has no leaves on it, does not necessarily mean that it is dead. What is needed here, if there is doubt as to the viability of a branch is, grab it down low and pierce the bark with your thumbnail. If there is very little change in color, it is probably dead. Try a few other places along the branch to see if the results match. To compare, look to a branch you have already pruned and know is alive, do the thumbnail thing. Compare the color on the two branches.

With wood you know is dead, using the thumbnail trick, continue doing this down the branch, until you find live bark, if there is none remove the entire branch.

Where you are going to cut.

You want, in all instances, to cut to healthy wood. If you are pruning a healthy branch, at your desired new length, locate an outward facing bud, as in away from the plant. The bud you are cutting to should be easily identifiable by the fact that, this is where a leaf once was and there should be a swelling, if not an actual bud showing. To identify a new bud, if it's not immediately obvious, look to find some sort of pattern. Is there a shape, ridge, dimple or something that occurs evenly down the branch - this can be flat or raised, but this is your bud.

In most cases, you are cutting from just above the bud, about 5 mm. and down on a shallow angle - towards the plant. The thick part of the secateurs, the anvil, should always be uppermost to the part of the plant being removed, this way any bruising by the anvil is removed with the unwanted plant material. If the plant has buds opposite each other, then cut straight across, above the buds.

If removing a branch close to the main trunk of the plant, do not cut it flush with the trunk. Leave a small nub of wood and viable bark, this will encourage the plant to cover the wound with new bark. This will help prevent access by pests and disease. No garden can be successful without pruning tools and garden maintenance.