If you want to extend the life of your tree and encourage it to grow better fruit, you have to prune it. Pruning fruit trees is the thing to do, because that allows sunlight to reach all areas of the tree. Armed with my best sewing scissors and a ladder, I marched right outside swearing I would not call someone to do it for me. I succeeded in opening the ladder and pinching my thumb in about 30 minutes. Then I climbed up this thing and had an idea of what Jack felt like when he climbed the beanstalk.

Then I reached the first limb, and even though I suddenly realized that I knew nothing about pruning fruit trees, I was sure it wouldn't be too hard. After attempting to cut one of the smaller limbs from my tree, it dawned upon me that scissors weren't going to get the job done. So I borrowed my husband's chain saw.

It had to be more effective than scissors, after all. Except I didn't anticipate how loud it would be! It startled me. I lost my footing and fell off the ladder, not before throwing the chain saw on the ground. Fortunately, the lawn is soft. I swore at the stupid chain saw, then we back up the ladder with it. I was prepared this time; I started again.

I tried to cut that same small limb again. Apparently, chainsaws are really sharp as well. The chain saw was aggressive and chomped into six and half limbs. Oh man, this really ticked me off. My precious tree! 1/4th of it was on the ground. Never mind the fact that I now had a big scratch on my forehead after one of the falling limbs struck me there. But I wasn't about to give up.

Grabbing the hedge shears, I started climbing the tree itself. After all, how hard can pruning fruit trees be? As I was going up, I kicked over the ladder by accident.

Boiling mad, I waited in that bleeping fruit tree until my husband found me in the tree, bleeding from the head, with dirt stuck to my butt. My husband was laughing as I made my way back towards the house. I gave one last withering look to the tree and muttered, "Until next year!"

Visit Fruit Tree Nursery and get the tips you need to make pruning Fruit Trees not only easy, but also fun. Plus we got some other great fruit tree advice as well.