The Art Of Niwaki (2017)

Gardener's World has been giving arboreal advice for decades in the UK on mainstream TV, along with what to stuff in your herbaceous borders.

I also have rather more than a passing interest in bonsai (for 30+ years). You can't wire a full sized tree as you might with bonsai. Nor can you pinch growth in pines as you do in bonsai. Jins and saris etc would be butchery in full sized trees - to be honest I'm not keen on them in bonsai.

When it comes to full sized trees, look a little closer. Notice all the insects, tiny mammals (if you can spot them), fungi etc. Trees become an environment of their own within the larger environment.

There is nothing wrong with turning an environment into sculpture. At least you care about it! However, I recommend that you do not use bonsai rules to guide your full sized tree management.

Another good one is the famed "Zaratsu polishing" on watches, named simply for the manufacturer of the polishing machines (Sallaz).

But there is something Japanese about making an art out of regular little mundane things. Or perhaps bringing an art to them.

You might enjoy the philosophy Masanobu Fukuoka, who advocates for "do-nothing farming".

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masanobu_Fukuoka

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_farming

I think of it like combing the tree's hair. A tree sends out branches in all directions, but many of those branches are growing towards branches that are already there where the sky is already shaded. Many of them will naturally die off when they can't find enough light.

We're just expediting the natural process and opening the tree up to the air and light. Ultimately, we're saving the tree from investing energy into dead ends and guiding its energy into the branches that can most effectively reach more open sky, which is what the tree really "wants." We're just acting as the tree's eyes to guide it.

Pruning plants is very often good for them.

You have to remember that in the "natural world" (whatever that means), trees are damaged all the time by browsing animals, falling limbs of older trees, intense weather, falling rocks, etc. They and their ancestors have evolved under variations on those conditions for millions of years, and as such a lack of those things in a controlled garden or suburban environment is an unnatural way of growth.

Our (imperfect) knowledge and judgement can allow us to, rather than provide an environment totally lacking those natural events, wisely prune trees in ways which help them grow stronger than they otherwise would. Although you may intuitively feel a certain way, feelings are sometimes wrong.

Pines have a hard time pulling on the water chain due to their needle design (silhouette/waxy coating). To move water to a location on a pine branch, you usually need needles or a strong tip bud that was already emerging just as the needles were lost (i.e. the needles already drew a lot of sap to that location just before their demise). If at a given junction you can trace to a descendant shoot that is green / has needles, then the live vein traces through that junction. If no descendant shoot with needles, you're looking at dead wood and inspecting under the bark won't find any trace of green cambium, or only fading cambium.

If you are aiming for your garden to provide habitat for birds and animals, human-aestheic-ifying all the things is not a good strategy. For instance, don't underestimate the habitat value of old limbs with hollows.