Pruning - why it looks and feels so good...

Ahhhhhh.... Warmer days are finding me outside more often than not.  I'm picking up sticks, raking the leaves and fluffing the mulch.  I'm examining the beds and considering past successes as well as failures. Not very different from the other parts of my life. Winter found me self-examining and setting new resolutions.  Spring has found me putting these values to work - looking at what works for me and what needs change.  Screening the people and experiences that fill out my life - some make my life better and need more room to flourish - others didn't fare so well and need to be thinned out.  Call them weeds if you prefer - even the most majestic of oaks is a weed when growing in the wrong place.

Trimming the bushes, shrubs and trees always makes me feel good.  Cutting back the dead and overgrown and shaping into comfortable clean profiles.  I see them spring into life and then relax as I shape, manicure and style. Again, like situations in our personal lives - sometimes a branch is rubbing and irritating the other limbs or maybe a few careful snips at suckers will bolster the mainstays and promote growth in weaker branches.   Of course there will be times when you can't be discreet but just need to cut out the diseased wood.  One must always give thoughtful consideration when taking blade to wood - not only do living things thrive with care and attention, but they also pull back and decay at the hands of destructive lacerations.  Ain't that the truth!

Consider health and size and remember even Mother Nature bears a little vanity. Attractive shapes, balanced canopies and symmetrical considerations prove the most pleasing to inhabiting creatures as well as the beholder.  Ecosystems are much like our own lives - keep them clean, well tended and natural for the best results -  one square foot at a time...