Shaping Up with an Early-Spring Pruning
Early-spring pruning is an important part of any good landscape maintenance program, and it’s a great way to keep your trees and shrubs “in bounds” while helping them to maintain a pleasant shape.
It's much easier to see where pruning needs to be done at this time (since trees and shrubs haven't fully leafed out yet). In addition, plants have less fluid moving through the branches in the early spring. This means that the wounds created from pruning will "bleed" less and will heal more quickly.
Trees and shrubs should be pruned in the early spring to remove branches that overlap and rub against each other, to remove any dead wood, and to keep stray branches from blocking your driveway, walkways and windows. This will lead to healthier, better-looking trees and shrubs and a more functional, aesthetically pleasing landscape.
The only landscape plants that won't benefit from early-spring pruning are your spring-flowering shrubs. By now, their buds will have been set for blooming, and pruning them would eliminate flowering in the spring!
Quick Tips for Early Spring
• Early spring is a great time for cutting back your ornamental grasses. Old growth can be tied back with twine, and the grass should be cut 4" to 6" from the ground to spur new growth.
• Fruit trees, evergreens and many (but not all) deciduous trees and shrubs will benefit from being trimmed and shaped in the early spring, before new growth begins.
• Any perennial plants that were left standing over the winter can be cut back in the early spring. This will encourage new growth and blooms.
• Your landscape’s appearance can be greatly improved with a thorough edging and weeding of your plant beds.
• Any trees or shrubs that were planted in the fall will benefit from a long, slow watering once new leaves appear.
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