Here it is, March already, and I'm standing in my garden listening to the wind try to rearrange everything I've spent years putting in place. It's been a strange year so far — temperatures swinging from unseasonably high to bitterly low — but the wind is the one constant. It always arrives in March, and it always makes me think about my trees.
Because trees are structural beings. They don't get to duck inside or brace themselves against a wall. They stand there and absorb every gust, and that wind stress accumulates. Which is why March, for me, is really about pruning — and about understanding the principles that separate good pruning from the kind that can actually destroy a tree.
Here's the first thing I want every Southern Nevada gardener to take to heart: In any given year, try not to remove more than about 25 to 30 percent of a tree's total foliage. That's your ceiling. And you should adjust it downward based on three factors — if the tree is older, if it's diseased or stressed, or if it's a species that already struggles in our climate. Any one of those conditions means you want to prune less. Sometimes 5 or 10 percent is plenty. Sometimes the best thing you can do is leave it alone entirely.
I know that's hard to hear when you're staring at a tree that looks overgrown or unruly. But pruning is about building good structure. It's not about making a tree smaller, and it's not about imposing some shape you saw in a magazine. Trees should be allowed to reach their full mature size. If you're constantly fighting to keep one smaller, you're going to spend more money, more time, and more frustration than if you'd just planted the right tree in the first place.
If you want a smaller tree, plant a smaller tree.
So what does good structure look like? It means branches that are well spaced throughout the canopy, and — this is the critical part — wide angles of attachment where branches meet each other or where a branch meets the trunk. The wider that angle, the stronger the union. Think of it like a solid handshake versus two people awkwardly bumping elbows.
When the angle is narrow, bark gets pinched and trapped between the growing limbs. As those branches thicken over the years, the union doesn't strengthen with them. Instead, it becomes a weak point — the place where your tree is most likely to fail in a windstorm.
It gets worse if the two branches at that narrow junction are co-dominant, meaning they're roughly the same diameter. Two equally sized limbs competing at a tight angle is a recipe for splitting.
The best time to address this is when the tree is young. But if you're looking at a mature tree with a bad fork, here's the long game: Prune more heavily on one of the two competing branches each year. Over time, you'll slow its growth while the other side continues to develop. Eventually, instead of two branches the same size, you'll have one that's roughly twice the diameter of the other — and that dramatically reduces the risk of failure.
One of the most common mistakes I see — and I've been seeing it for decades — is people gutting the interior of their trees. They'll say, "I need to thin it out," and next thing you know, they've stripped away all the inner foliage.
Here's why that's a problem. That interior growth is there for a reason. Those inner branches continue to photosynthesize even when the outer canopy shuts down in our brutal summer heat. That energy is vital to the tree's survival. And mechanically, those interior branches act like cushions — as the wind pushes the canopy around, the inner limbs absorb the movement and help the outer branches stay intact. They support each other. Remove that network, and you've left every remaining branch isolated and exposed.
I also want to say something that goes beyond pruning technique, because sometimes the issue isn't how you're caring for a tree — it's that the tree shouldn't be where it is. A tree that's too big for its space will send roots into walls, sidewalks, and in a really bad situation, the foundation of your home.
No amount of expert pruning solves that. Make sure your big trees have room to grow — above ground and below it. If a mature species is going to spread 30 feet wide, it needs that space from the day you plant it.
There are a lot of people in this valley who cut trees. They don't prune them. And an inexperienced or uneducated operator can do far more damage than the wind ever would — even fatal damage.
Before you hire someone, ask them questions. How much foliage do you plan to remove? See if they talk in percentages. Ask them what a weak union is. If they can't answer, keep looking.
Make sure they're licensed, bonded, and insured. And if you want to educate yourself first, visit the International Society of Arboriculture's website at treesaregood.org — they have excellent diagrams that explain everything I've described here.
Take good care of your trees. They are the backbone of your landscape, and they're worth the most — in shade, in beauty, in property value, in the simple pleasure of watching something grow in a place where growing isn't easy.
