

I made a few discoveries in the process, things that have made me feel confident that when the time comes, I will be able to make those cuts. They need much attention the first few years of their lives to ensure they grow in a way that gives the proper structure for strength, air flow, and light penetration when they are mature, so I have since sat down and invested more time in research.

Pruning the cherry trees is not a one-time job.

I quickly passed the pruners on to my husband and asked him to do the deed. The amount of information available was overwhelming and the variety of opinions only added to the confusion. Knowing pruning was inevitable if we were going to look forward to many years of healthy trees, I began my research. Trees are expensive and slow-growing so mistakes are a more serious matter. A tree isn't like a plant, which will usually recover in a short time or, worst case, leaves you out only a few dollars if it doesn't recover. That's what I pretended to believe, anyway, because the idea of pruning a tree was completely intimidating to me. And we were done! We just needed to be patient and wait for the annual battle with the birds over the cherries. A few days later our boys helped me plant them. I researched and picked out the varieties that best fit our needs and that fall, he drove to a nursery over an hour away to buy the trees.
