The Fine Art of Pruning
Branches are cut at the base to train them to grow up, not out.
On Wednesday, December 14th, Park Horticulturalist Rebecca McMackin hosted a tutorial on pruning with Brooklyn Botanic Garden Senior Arborist Christopher Roddick. They were joined by ten landscape architects from Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, the firm that created the master plan for the park. After a lesson on Pier 1, the group moved to the privet hedge on Pier 6 and put their newly acquired skills to work. They pruned branches away from the benches, training them to grow up in the future, rather than out towards the seating and promenade. This method will also speed the development of the privet into the form intended by the original design: a tall and natural hedge which one can see through to the playgrounds on either side of the promenade.
Branches are carefully trimmed at the base.
Temporary windows have been pruned in the hedge now to increase visibility between the main promenade and Swing Valley, Slide Mountain and Sandbox Village.
California Privet (Ligustrum ovalifolium) is a fast growing shrub native to Japan (despite the name!) but common to estates and suburban properties in the Northeast. Pruning must be done three times a year to keep the rapid branch growth out of the seating area. The pruning strategy involves cutting each branch at the base rather than in the middle, so that more branches do not sprout out of each cut. Overtime, this will reduce, if not eliminate, maintenance requirements.
Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates at work on Pier 5.
