Tree & Shrub Pruning

This workbook turns the course into action in your own yard. Each section pairs with a course module and asks you to inventory your real plants, plan species-correct timing, and practice cuts deliberately. Work through it with a notebook, your tools, and one plant at a time, and keep the templates as a living record you update every season.

Train your eye to read branch anatomy and to choose between heading and thinning before you ever make a cut.

Go to any tree or shrub in your yard and find five branches of different sizes. On each, locate the branch collar and the branch bark ridge before deciding anything. Sketch or photograph each one and mark with an arrow exactly where the final cut would go, just outside the collar. Do not cut yet; this is an observation exercise.

Pick three cuts you are considering anywhere in your garden. For each, fill in the row to force yourself to name the goal and pick the correct cut type before acting. Leave the outcome column blank until you have made the cut and seen the response.

Match tools to branch sizes, drill the three-cut method, and build a maintenance and disinfection habit.

List every cutting tool you own. For each, record its rated maximum diameter and note whether it is bypass or anvil. Then walk your yard and confirm you own the right tool for the largest branch you realistically need to cut. Flag any gap.

Find one limb 5 cm or thicker that genuinely needs removing, or use a heavy fallen branch propped horizontally for practice. Perform the undercut, the top cut, and the final collar cut in that order, narrating each step aloud. Inspect the result for any bark tearing.

Classify each plant by bloom timing and bleeding behavior, then commit it to a personal calendar.

Inventory the trees and shrubs you intend to prune. For each, record when it blooms and use the spring-bloomer rule to assign its correct pruning window. Mark known bleeders separately so you remember to wait for full leaf.

Think of a flowering shrub that disappointed you, or imagine a neighbor's lilac that never blooms. Using the bloom-timing rule, work out what likely went wrong and write the corrected timing you would use going forward.

Plan a fruit tree's framework, set a hedge or renovation strategy, and lock in your safety limits before going overhead.

For each fruit tree you have or plan to plant, choose a training system based on its fruit and record the scaffold structure you are building toward. Track this across years as the framework develops.

Choose one formal hedge to re-shape with a proper batter, or one overgrown shrub to renovate. Decide your approach and write the multi-year plan, confirming first that the plant tolerates the cuts you intend.