It was time to prune my cherry and plum trees as the weather has warmed and their appearance was unruly to say the least.

Stone fruit trees should be pruned in the warmer summer months as they are prone to infection in the winter when they can’t heal the cut wounds so well. This can lead to all sorts of problems so after taking in the washing today, I decided I would tackle the job.

I’m a keen pruner. I don’t hang back.

I have a cherry tree and a plum tree which were to be done. The apple trees and the pear tree will be done in the winter.

I saw quite a few cherries the other day and they were all still green so I thought I had time to get them if I kept an eye on them. Wrong. There was nothing but a couple of dried up, pathetic, cherry shaped husks. I may have been a little angry about that:

I then attacked pruned the plum tree, being careful to avoid the pitiful number of plums which are on it.

I also thinned out some of the autumn raspberries as they are becoming overcrowded too. With so many canes, the fruit won’t get a good air supply around them which can lead to rot, as well as making the fruit hard to pick.

I could probably take a few more out but I thought I’d leave it at that for a while.

Managed a quick trip to the allotment today and as I feared, all my cucumbers in the polytunnel have been eaten! I saw a few holes in the soil so I know we’ve had visitors – I flooded the holes and filled them in best I could. The thought of working in there and having rodents appearing suddenly is not a comforting one!

I’ll be honest, I’m not 100% sure if I’ve done the pruning correctly but it felt right so I went with it. Time will tell if I’ve done it the way I should have!