Personally as a parent, I attempt to be reflexive and critical of my own parenting practices, as well as proactive in my engagement with others in respect to theirs. As a result, I have come to see much analogical value in the gardening activity of pruning.The analogy first came to my mind almost 15 years ago when I lived on a small acreage and had many fruit trees, and it has since re-presented itself during my recent garden renovations in my current garden.
We prune in order to grow healthier stronger plants, robust growth, more abundant fruit and larger blooms. Pruning is the critical factor that controls the shape, size, symmetry and growth of plants.
Although I am not a trained horticulturalist, I do recognise a number of basic principles that relate to pruning, which I think also relate to parenting.
- Welcome the new. Keep vigorous new shoots, but manage them and integrate them into the overall project of the plant.
- Be interactive. Prune in response to the plant, by knowing where the fruit occurs and how the tree has grown in the previous year.
- Be gentle. When pruning, don't traumatise the plant.
- Be scrupulous. Use clean, sharp cuts with an appropriately chosen tool - don't hack or use a chainsaw on a small shrub.
- Remember, timing is everything. Remember, there is a time to prune and a time not to prune.
- Have an ideal. When pruning, you must have an idea of the end product or "growth form". Let this shape the whole plant project.
- Consider the environment. Each tree is influenced by its soil, the wind and other "external factors" that need to be considered in relation to the type of tree and the most appropriately, it optimal growth form.
- Be attentive. The more uncared for a tree is the harder it is to "bring it back to productivity".
- Know your purpose. Pruning always has a purpose relative to a function relative to the plant and the optimal plant form.
- Be stage appropriate. Prune young trees lightly.Prune mature trees more heavily.
- Develop your skill. If you don't know how to prune you won't do it well. So learn how to prune.
- Balance the general and the specific. Although each plant and tree is different and unique, remember that plants and trees come in types (similarities) as well as uniquenesses (differences).
- Work with what you have. You can't have a branch where there is none.
- Start early. It is easier to shape when the tree or plant is young than when it is older. At some stage, it is not possible to change the plant form. Train young trees in the first few years after planting to avoid corrective heavy pruning later.
- Remember, Rome wasn't built in a day. Prune a little at a time.
- Don't forget your goal. A tree that is not well pruned will not present well, produce optimally, reflect its type or perhaps even survive into maturity.
- Mistakes happen. Wounds heal quickly when growth begins.
- Remember, it's a big job. Pruning is a major component of growing plants and trees. Several studies have demonstrated that commercially, pruning accounts for approximately 50 percent of all labor costs and from 10 to 15 percent of total growing costs.