Hey, I just found my answer. I'm posting a few quotes in case anyone else does a search. "Instead, the secret (well, not so much a secret, really) is to cut each branch individually up to a shorter, out-facing bud or lateral branch. Vary the lengths so it doesn't look like the bowl haircut your dad used to give you or your brother. I know this is more work upfront, but in the end, it isn't. If you shear, you'll end up working harder, because each time you cut the poofy ends off, you get more ... and then more ... and then ... well, you get it." "Prune in late summer or fall. DonÂt prune it to the point of it looking like a mushroom." "Removing the terminal bud eliminates the hormone, auxin, from suppressing lateral growth which makes a plant bushier. You should remove improper leaders, thin out necessary limbs if they want it looser, and always selectively prune to avoid cutting a lot of terminal buds." I also found an incredible website called Pruning Man and he has fantastic before/after photos of a weeping cherry which pretty much shows me my problem. I don't really want to prune, I should be thinning the branchlets.

hi -- if you're in a new yard, you'll probably have a better idea in the spring of what method works best for the conditions you have. personally, by late fall i've pretty much lost the motivation to do much yard work. -- the messy look of the dead/dying leaves doesn't bother me, so i don't do a thing to my hostas and let the leaves turn to compost on their own. i gather up what ever is left of the old leaves in the spring when i have more enthusiasm and when the new growth is emerging. in contrast though, my mother always does a major fall clean-up. in her zone (5) and her yard conditions (shadier and wetter than mine), if she doesn't get the dead leaves up before winter, her garden becomes not only the wet slimy mess that you describe, but, as a result, also a MAJOR slug party. the only way for her to stay ahead of the slug invasion is to clean the beds out in the fall. lucky for me, i don't have a severe slug problem, so i don't have those worries. in general, if leaves are still green, they're still producing food, and so best to leave them alone til they turn.

Good god, spatz, do you need advice?. I think you need a chainsaw. Have you seen peter Cundall doin' his stuff on the ABC?. He's as ruthless as you. Like Finbar says, there are only a couple of types which need light pruning. If you look at commercial orchards, they cut to size. All their trees are cut to grow for the harvester. doesn't do em any harm.

About 2/3 years ago somebody did a radical trim and it shot up a ton of water sprouts toward the light.. should be pruned every year. I'd probably take about half out now if you're not in fire blight zone and the rest the following year, total about 80% should come out to get light in and reaming fruit branches going straight up reduce to about half length or your preferred length. If too high, then cut all the upper branches FLUSH and just let the side branches grow to come down eventually.