Pruning is the trimming and cutting of plants to get rid of any injured, dead, or infected parts. Pruning is also used as a preventive measure to make space for any new seedling or growth. There are lots of different pruning tools
and types of pruning. It is an important gardening skill that all homeowners should be able to carry out effectively and complete regularly. Here are some of the reasons to prune your home garden:-
- Pruning your garden plants on a regular basis can help to extend their life. Removing a portion of the oldest plant will encourage new growth, thereby promoting a more vigorous and healthy plant.
- Removing any dead, damaged, or infected parts of a plant will increase its health, it also prevents insects or other organisms from harming the rest of the tree. That can save the plants life, and more importantly, save you money on a replacement plant.
- Pruning can prevent health problems from happening in the first place. Thinning out branches will increase the amount of airflow and light to the centre of the plant. This will help to minimize the potential of developing diseases and other problems.
- Pruning will also visually enhance the appearance of the plants in your garden. Pruning out the oldest plant parts and branches encourages the growth of new wood and plants and suppresses unwanted growth which will keep our gardens looking young and healthy.
- Pruning can also help to control the size and shape of plants, which will prevent them from becoming overgrown in the garden. This helps maintain the form and structural integrity of it.
- It increases the amount and quality of flowers and fruit that are produced in your garden.
- Pruning encourages the growth of new healthy shoots. By cutting your branches back to just above the lowest outward facing bud, encourages new shoots to grow outwards instead of congesting the centre of your plant.
- Pruning begins training younger trees for pollarding or for trellising to form an espalier.
- Removing the parts of plants and branches from a tree provides clearance and easy access to your garden.
Gardeners and homeowners use various garden tools and tree designed for the maintenance of their gardens such as saws, clippers, hand pruners, shears or trimmers. In general, pruning can be done at any time of year and will give you a better looking and more healthy garden. If you would like to learn more about pruning then call us on 021-496-5132 or visit us online today.
*Note: You may only cut your shrubs at certain times of year. It is an offence to ‘cut, grub, burn or otherwise destroy hedgerows on uncultivated land during the nesting season from 1 March to 31 August, subject to certain exceptions’.