The Whistling Gardener

by Steve Smith

Steve Smith is owner of Sunnyside Nursery in Marysville, located at 3915 Sunnyside Blvd., and a respected local expert on all things horticultural. You can reach Steve at 425-334-2002 or by e-mail at info@sunnysidenursery.net.

Gardening is, among other things, a kinetic art form. Unlike a painting that once finished never changes, gardens continue to evolve through the seasons. Some things grow, others die, weeds invade and bugs and diseases create havoc. The artistic composition is always in a state of flux and consequently needs continual tweaking. Summer is a perfect time to fine-tune your garden.

One of the more critical tasks for the summer (other than watering, which is a topic in and of itself) is thinning. By thinning I am mostly referring to the removal of branches on trees and the removal of excess fruit on fruit trees. First, let's talk about branches.

By this time of the year many beds in my garden become excessively shady. The canopy from the trees has become too dense and does not allow sufficient light to penetrate down to the plants below. When this happens it is time to do some thinning which, loosely translated, means the removal of entire branches. If you look up into your trees you will see smaller, twiggy branches that can be eliminated without disturbing the overall shape and beauty of your plant. In fact, this thinning usually results in an improved look and has the added benefit of facilitating better light penetration and airflow to the plants below. If you thin this month, your trees will have plenty of time to heal before winter sets in and the plants below will fare much better.

If you have weeping trees like weeping cherries, crab apples, pussy willows, Japanese maples or Young's birch, you will need to crawl underneath the canopy and prune from the inside out. You cannot prune weeping trees from the outside effectively. Once inside the canopy you will quickly discover dead limbs that have long ago surrendered to a lack of light and no longer have any value to the tree. Cut everything out that is dead and then take a good look from both inside and outside to see where else you might want to prune to enhance the overall beauty. While you can do this kind of pruning any time of the year, summer is best because it is so easy to distinguish the living from the dead. Try to avoid cutting the tips of branches off unless they are crawling on the ground. Tip pruning stimulates more growth and that is not your goal.

As for fruit thinning, this may well be the hardest task for gardeners to accomplish. Proper winter pruning is the first stage in managing the amount of fruit set. Summer thinning is the second. Pears and apples will set their fruit in clusters and the goal is to remove all but one fruit per cluster. Ideally, you would do this when the fruit is about the size of a nickel. Most fruit trees have what is called a "June drop" in which they do some of their own thinning but it is rarely sufficient. Bite the bullet now and finish the job by thinning out the clusters to a single fruit. Your reward will be bigger fruit. As a side note, if you grow grapes and are a timid pruner, most likely you will need to thin out the clusters to no more than one per foot or two of vine.

The whole thinning process is applicable to veggies too. Carrots, lettuce, radishes and anything else that is sown from seed usually needs to be thinned 3-4 weeks after it germinates. Read the seed packet for the proper spacing. Obviously, carrots can grow much closer together than corn.

Finally, I even thin my tomatoes. They will set far more fruit than will ever ripen in our maritime climate, so as they grow, I direct the growth to just a few main branches and pinch out all the side growth. This way the energy is focused on a smaller crop, which will ripen sooner and reach a larger size.

Thinning is all about finding a balance of space and resources. As the summer progresses it is our job as gardeners to try and maintain that balance. When you thin, you win.

Steve Smith is owner of Sunnyside Nursery in Marysville and can be reached at 425-334-2002 or online at info@sunnysidenursery.net