I was extremely proud to have been invited to give some pruning instructions to the gardeners at the garden of La Foce in Tuscany. One of my first tasks at the garden was to renovate an abandoned olive grove and hopefully these photographs will prove that the olive tree has an amazing capacity for shooting out new stems after a drastic prune.
Olive trees in many ways depend upon human intervention, in the form of pruning, to prevent them from becoming overgrown, congested with branches and non-productive. Therefore, although pruning is essential it is, however, crucial to get the timing right. Renovation of an old olive tree should take place in early spring, just as this renovation of the olive trees in this series of photographs.