Winter pruning, done badly and then better

The old apple tree came with the plot. In the first winter I took far too much off, and the next summer it answered with a forest of upright shoots and almost no fruit.

What I do now

Less, and over several winters. Dead and crossing wood first, then one or two larger cuts a year to open the middle. The tree has settled down, and last autumn it gave us a proper crop again.

Pruning in the cold has its own pleasure: no leaves in the way, the shape of the tree plain to see.