Mulling that over led me to realize that this is also the best time of the year to make plans to remedy bad situations. Summer is the very worst. Removing plants in leaf is a bit like giving away puppies. You know you have to do it, but emotion enters into the decision. With the leaves off the trees and shrubs it is easier. The suspended animation of dormancy makes them seem more like a piece of decorative art than a living thing. When you look at them in that way you can judge them on their form and placement as an artist or designer would. If it looks bad now. Make a resolution to do something about it at the appropriate time.
Many of the homes I pass on my daily neighborhood walks are surrounded by hedges. Their naked skeletons show how they have been pruned. If the job was poorly done, they certainly look sad now. The good jobs allow the hedge to be a beautiful frame for the house inside, all black and white filigree with just the right emphasis for the subject. I suddenly became aware that incorrect pruning was the reason a small tree had looked so strange last summer. It was not arching and graceful as I would have expected of its kind, but stiff and startled-looking. The bare branches showed the places where heading cuts had produced the stiff branching.
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