Oh God, I have trimmed all the trees around the house so perfectly that this year’s new growth is proceeding in perfect accordance with and fulfillment of my plans, I just did a full circuit and there were only like five shoots that were not merely dead ends (I’ll trim them in winter, after their production gets sucked down thickening trunks on the way in fall) but actually in the way of things that could influence their growth to be less than ideal.

Also all the canopies I opened up huge gaps in in the upper backyard when I first started fixing their structure are filling in this year or next and it looks great, cathedral ceiling with two canopies meeting at the apex, if those trees grew so much since I arrived they were maybe even only 15 years established back then.

Also the black walnut in the lower back regrowing nice and bushy, it’s really still in the stage of getting enough sun for enough growth next year (an adult snapped a few years ago and this is shoots from the cut stump), plenty of legacy roots so it’s not gonna bottleneck on water or nutrients, just let that continue for a few years but keep an eye on developing some leader as a new trunk.