Pruning with John Lamar and Charles Duncan
John Lamar returned to the City of Ojai Community Demonstration Garden today, to offer the hands-on portion of last week's Naturalistic Pruning Workshop. He was joined by Master Gardener Charles Duncan.
Today's workshop focused on pruning demonstrations and guided practice out in the garden. 
Charles Duncan showed the different tools available and discussed situations where each tool would be useful.
He then demonstrated the use of some of the tools before everyone headed out to the garden to practice what they had learned.
Photos by Les Dublin.
Participants stayed dry in a cozy gazebo as horticulturist and landscape designer John Lamar kept everyone engaged and entertained.
When there was a break in the clouds, John led the group on a walk around the garden to see a variety of different pruned specimens.
The hands-on pruning portion of the workshop was postponed due to wet conditions, since bacteria and disease can be spread if wet plants are cut.
A follow-up workshop, focusing on the hands-on practice of pruning, is in the planning stages. Photos by Les Dublin.
Naturalistic pruning techniques enhance the natural structure of plants to reveal their beauty, and conserve water. The workshop will take place rain or shine in the City of Ojai Community Demonstration Garden, 401 South Ventura Street, behind Ojai City Hall. Bring gloves and sharp, sterile shears if you have them.
Next, holes were drilled in the wood and the sides were screwed together.
The bed was carefully assembled
and 1/4 inch hardware cloth was stretched over the bottom to keep out those pesky gophers.
The wire was cut to fit around the posts that anchor the bed in the ground.
Then the wire was stapled to the wood.
Finally, the new bed was installed
and filled with soil, aged manure and compost. Photos by Les Dublin.