Eek - will my Acer recover from this butchery?

[JenaWren]

For some reason my house sitter decided to do some pruning of my Acer.

He's butchered it.

Will it recover?

Pic?

Oops - sorry. For some reason pic was too big to post. Hopefully this works.

Ok so it's quite hard to see what's happened here - he hasn't pruned it all over so much as kind of sliced the side off, is that right? It looks like he got annoyed with trying to get down the path and just cleared everything over the path?
Firstly - what the fuck? Terrible behaviour from a house sitter. I house sit and I cannot emphasise enough I would never entertain the idea of hacking at my host's garden like that just in order to get down the path. He's an arsehole.

Secondly though it's definitely not going to die because there's so much of it left, it's going to be a weird shape for a while but hopefully it'll close the gap to some extent.

But WTF was he thinking? Any idea? Have you communicated with him since he left? Told him he's an acer butchering arsehole?

What on earth was he thinking? That's not pruning, it's random chopping.

It'll be fine. We had to move a similar sized acer because of building work. It was in a period of very hot weather and it lost some of its branches. There's absolutely tons of new growth now.

What was your house sitter thinking though 🙈

He probably accidentally lit it on fire when was smoking marijuana in the garden with his mates.

Phew - glad it hear it will recover. He’s fantastic with cats and houses but looks like plants are not his thing 😁

Aren't you cross though?
I mean, two out of three ain't bad but what if he was fantastic with house and garden but nearly killed the cat?
#plantsmatter 😂

Or...you know where I'm going now...what if he was amazingly kind to cat and garden and knocked one of your walls down?

I agree plants do matter!

I’m sure it was done with good intent - if not a great deal of skill. I am very glad it will grow back and no permanent damage has been done.

However I will let him know not to do any more helpful gardening in the future!

Should I just leave it well alone now? If I try and even it up a bit I’m worried it will end up like my 1970s fringe cut by my mum. Inches above the eyebrows is not a good look!!

Leave it alone, it is autumn and it will soon be losing all its leaves anyway. Then, in early spring, you could go out and have a trim up to sort out the shape a bit better before the leaf buds open.

Don't trim it in spring. Acers do not like being trimmed in spring - they bleed. (Like sugar maples, which are tapped in early spring to capture the sap as it increases.) I only trim my acer around this time of year. But TBH I would just leave it alone. Next spring it will put out new growth, and in a couple of years you probably won't even see the gap.

That is why I said to do it in early spring before the leaf buds start to open. The tree will be just starting to come out of dormancy. It will soon start to grow though, and will be able to quickly repair the damage caused by pruning, lessening the chance of dieback, which you are more likely to get if you prune it when it is fully dormant in midwinter.

Besides, all the stuff I read online says that you should only prune them when they are fully dormant. Nobody's told the ones in my garden - they get pruned several times during the summer months and are absolutely fine with it. In fact, the only time I don't prune them is from October until early February.

Best time to prune Acers is between leaf fall and the end of the year.

Thank you!! All pruning advice gratefully received.

I’m actually moving house (hopefully before Christmas). I may just leave it and hope my buyers are much better gardeners than me 😀