It was time for the annual Maple trim for the Dwarf Maple in the Zen garden.
I had already trimmed out the Red Dwarf Maple in the Dragon's Spine area back in the early spring (sorry, no blog post for that one).
Thinning out the foliage and allowing sunlight to get to the trunk will be healthier for the tree. You don't want the foliage to become so thick that it impedes the growth of the lower portions of the canopy.
I always start with cutting the low hanging foliage to open up the underside (see the 2020 trimming). This allows the trunk and larger branches to be exposed, which can add some interest to the tree. The first few times I did this, I was concerned I was removing too much foliage and potentially killing the tree. However, each year the tree comes back and I have to repeat the process. Occasionally I might skip a year or limit trimming just to be safe. Try not to remove more than 30% per cutting. Give the tree a chance to adjust to the shock.
Check out the following video of my latest trimming of the Dwarf Maple in the Zen garden:
Here is a before and after set of images:
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| Before (Maple on right) |
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| After (Maple on right) |
For the record, the actual trimming process shown in the video above took 50 min. Overall, I am happy with the finished look.
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