Can someone help me with my olive tree?

[midnightinmoscow]

Had it for 4 years or so. I'll admit to doing nothing with it really, other than water and feed it. It's in a pot on my patio.

However, it has started to grow upwards and is thinning out. Nothing like the bushy plants I see elsewhere.

Can someone advice me what I need to do? I assume some pruning is required, however I have no idea where to start.

TIA

I will admit to being actively neglectful of my olive tree (nearly killed it through frostbite two years ago) and it's in desperate need of attention but I am too scared don't know where to start.

I have an olive tree in a patio pot. Neighbour has 4 olive trees in the front garden. Both face southwards. Neighbours olive trees are thriving on low maintenance in gritty soil on a slope and I suspect they do better in the ground than in a pot.
You could a) repot into poor sandy gritty soil or b) plant out into well drained gritty soil.

This is what the rhs have to say and hey are the experts
apps.rhs.org.uk/advicesearch/profile.aspx?pid=138

Mine went a bit thin too and I googled what to do and they said to prune it back a bit which I did and it is sooo much nicer now. I also repotted it.

I had a little olive tree in a pot. I planted it in my south east facing garden in heavy clay and it is now about 3 metres high. It has shown no signs of damage in the last few winters when temperatures have been down to -10. It is a lovely tree now and even gets tiny olives on it.

If you are not too far north you could plant it out, they are hardier than people think.