"Glen Able" wrote in message
...
Hello again!

My new garden has 4 apple trees which I've finally gotten round to looking
at. (I'm assuming they're all apples, when we looked round the house in
Feb, one of them still had lots of fruits tenaciously clinging on!)

I guess I should snip off all the little weedy shoots that're coming out
all
over the shop, and clear the thick weeds/grass round the base, right?
One's
also covered in ivy, is that a bad idea?

Currently they have a 3-5 foot trunks, which branch outwards almost
horizontally several feet, and then there's a dense mass of 10'+ vertical
shoots. This seems to suggest they were heavily pruned some years ago and
then neglected, perhaps? Anyway, this doesn't seem like the textbook
shape
at all but, unfortunately, textbooks only seem to say, 'Do this in year 1,
that in year 2 etc.' and not how to deal with someone else's mess

So, if someone could give me some tips on how to proceed, then that'd be
great.

Sincere thanks to all those who responded with such a valuable wealth of
experience.

ga