Lessons from pruning my first apple tree

Three little apples

When we moved into our house last summer, there were 3 apples on the tree. The tree was slightly crooked. And it had so many branches. It almost looked like a ball of wool.

I remember feeling truly sorry for the tree that it was not bearing more fruit - and slightly frustrated with the previous tenants for not taking better care. Well, not that I’m the apple tree expert… But now with spring in the air and the sun in my face I decided to find out how to help this little tree grow.

Doing some research 

So, first things first: I went onto YouTube and started to look for a pruning tutorial. My first impression after having watched 3 or 4 videos: “Wow, this is harder than writing a thesis.” But then I came across Terry from Stark Bro’s:

“Don’t be intimidated when you are pruning, everyone prunes a little different. You are not going to kill the tree. And don’t be afraid to reevaluate while you’re cutting.” 

That was what I needed to hear. When tackling unfamiliar territory, a calming and reassuring voice can do wonders. 

From YouTube to reality

So here I am with the shears in my hand and the following instructions:

Step 1 - Keep the overall goal of pruning in mind: make lots of space for air and light to let the tree grow and bear more fruit. The shape of the tree needs to be slightly conical with more volume near the base. 

Step 2 - Choose 2 to 6 primary scaffold branches. Apple trees grow with their trunk connecting to a central lead branch, and then with scaffold branches (the next largest branches) connecting to these. After pruning, viewed from the top, your main branches of the tree will look similar to a star. The rest should be removed.

Step 3 – Prune everything else away that isn’t essential. Here we talk about dead, diseased or broken branches, unwanted shoots near the base of the trunk, downward growing branches, branches that cross or touch. 

Phew! I can feel my hesitation. Do I really need to cut off so many branches? And what if I choose the wrong ones? And here, Terry comes back in the game:

“After pruning I’ll monitor how it’s growing and then next year I can kind of reevaluate it.” 

Ok, I’m allowed to make mistakes, there’s time to course correct, let’s do this! And the minute I get from my head into my hands and literally into all my senses my mind calms down. And I start cutting.

The tree of life

Imagine that each branch stands for an activity or relationship. Each branch requires energy to bear fruit. Some branches are already dead or diseased. Some are broken. Some are competing and getting in each other’s way. Some are growing in the wrong direction. There is very few airflow and space for sunlight between them, both needed for growth. 

When we feel overwhelmed in our lives, it’s usually a sign that we have too many branches to take care of. But not enough air and sun to sustain all of them. It’s time to prune back things that are non-essential. For more energy and power to the remaining branches.

Cutting back to have more

I think the hardest part to understand within this process is, that in order to have more we need to focus on less. And this applies to various aspects of our lives: mentally, physically and digitally. I’ve talked about our family journey towards minimalism in a previous blog post, which covers some aspects.

But cutting back branches is challenging when we don’t know what exactly we want to grow. With our little apple tree I had a clear goal and strategy in mind: helping the tree to grow and bear more fruit by pruning.  And even though I was reluctant to cut off some perfectly healthy branches at first it became easier along the way.

Pruning takes trust. There’s no guarantee that the remaining branches will bear any fruit. But they could. You might not be happy when you let go of any possessions or relationships. But maybe you will be. It’s the not knowing which makes it hard. But every time you cut more non-essential branches off, you get a little more confident in deciding. And also, because Terry gave me permission to ‘reevaluate’ next year ;) 

Warmly, Viviane