After a Hard Prune

If you’re wondering about the title of this week’s story, I want to assure you I’m not talking about a dried up piece of fruit!

Those who know me, know I love to garden! Those of you new to this site are probably quickly learning that same fact! I’m still fairly new to the art of growing and caring for plants, so there is a lot I still have to learn. There is one part of gardening that terrifies me slightly. Its the fine art of the “hard prune”!

The majority of the flowers, shrubs, trees, and even veggies that grow in my garden need some type of pruning to keep their shape and to ensure they live a strong, healthy and productive life.

What is pruning, you may be asking? According to Mr. Noah Webster:

To prune is to lop or cut off the superfluous branches of trees, to make them bear better fruit or grow higher, or to give them a more handsome and regular appearance. It also means to clear away anything that is unsuitable or superfluous.

There are a couple of types of pruning that I’ve learned will make or break your gardening career. A “light prune” is simply removing old dead leaves, branches or twigs from a plant. It’s the type of pruning that most of us who spend time in the garden do without really thinking about it. As I wander through my yard, I’ll pull off the obviously dead leaves and branches without a lot of effort – they were already dead and just needed to be cleaned up and thrown away. There’s no shock to the plant, in fact they appear lighter and ready to keep producing almost immediately.

But the hardest, and personally the scariest type of pruning is the “hard prune”. That’s when you take what looks like a healthy plant and cut away what’s been growing since last season to make room for what will grow in the coming season. There are some plants that do best with an annual hard prune. There are even some – like my lantana – that enjoy a twice a year haircut! Thank goodness those little lantana flowers are tough! That’s a lot of cutting away the superfluous!

To make things even more confusing, some plants require a hard prune at the beginning of their growing season and some need it at the end. I suppose its proof that God created the plants in nature just as special and individual as He created us to be! And only He knows why!

I’m not sure which is the scariest about pruning my plants; the fear of change or the fear of failure.

Fearing change is the feeling that everything looks so good right now and it seems to be growing so well, why would I want to cut anything back? From the naked eye, there is nothing that seems superfluous. But the reality is the plant will be stronger and better able to withstand the harshest of weather and pests that may try to destroy it if it is cut back to the basics.

The bigger issue, fear of failure, is the one that tends to keep me stuck. What if I cut off too much? What if I ruin the plant or, worse, kill it? What if I’m pruning a plant at the beginning of their growing season that really needs it at the end? Basically, what if I fail and nothing ever grows again?

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, gardening requires a lot of faith. Once you plant a seed or baby plant and make sure it gets enough water and sun, the growing part really has nothing to do with you. God created each plant with the specific DNA they would need to grow and mature; we’re just the caretaker.

When I take a deep breath and have faith that God does that hardest part, it’s a bit easier to use my trusty pruning shears and cut away anything that will keep my little plant from flourishing. And now that I have a couple of growing seasons under my belt, I understand that when I cut my big beautiful butterfly bush down to 6 inches off the ground, it will grow back even fuller and more beautiful than the year before! It may look dead during the winter season, but every year, just like clockwork, it comes back. It gets better, it’s not a “one and done” habit!

Pruning is hard. Getting rid of what looks and feels just fine, but in reality is superfluous and not necessary for growth, is a true lesson in faith and maturity. What grows back is stronger and better and more capable of withstanding the storms that are inevitable!

Have you ever felt like you’ve just gone through a “hard prune”? Has God been working on your life like the Master Gardener He is, meticulously cutting away the things that really shouldn’t matter? Have you felt naked and exposed because the beautiful branches you were relying on aren’t there anymore? Those worldly things that made it appear to the outside that all was well when in reality, you were full of dead and dying superfluous stuff?

It’s much easier to endure God’s light pruning – reminders that we have a few dead branches that need clearing. But that hard pruning? That’s a different story. It hurts and leaves us feeling like nothing will ever be right again. But the wonderful truth is this: just like the plants He created, God has painstakingly created each of us with the DNA to grow into the exact person He wants us to be! And as we rest in that fact, even after a hard prune we can be assured that we will come back from it stronger and better equipped to do the work God has for each of us!

I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit He prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.       – John 15:1-2