How to Tightly Prune Olive Trees?

[spj]

I'd be grateful for some help / advice please about how to get that tight ball look with the foliage of two youngish olives trees, each about 5 foot high, which at the moment just have a normal spreading canopy. I want them as feature plants, not as trees that will be fruiting and most of the advice on the internet is about pruning with a view to getting them to fruit. Can anyone point me in the direction of a video or article please. Or alternatively describe here what I need to do. Thank you Sue

[Noisette]

Hi Sue,

They'll stand hard pruning. Just cut them /saw them back to a vaguely spherical framework then spend the next few summers pinching out the tips of the new growth until the desired effect is achieved ;-) It's a long-term project, although feeding them a balanced fertiliser will speed things up. Watch out for tiny green caterpillars which infest soft new growth. See thread about pine processionary caterpillars for preventative measures! HTH

[spj]

Thanks Noisette. Don't know about you but I'm getting really fed up with this weather! Grass and weeds unbelievably long and lush and almost impossible to mow / strim. A few dry warm days would be good.

[Noisette]

It's certainly....unusual. I've never seen puddles on a sloping lawn before :-) The Clematis are loving it, though, and at least the flowers aren't burning up and disappearing within a couple of days.

The warm, dry days will be here soon....then we'll be praying for rain ;-)

[andyh4]

Puddles - what are they?

OK we have had a little rain recently but we were still on water restrictions from the summer at the start of February

[Noisette]

Aquitaine was well-named, Andy :-) And Lot et Garonne is supposedly one of the drier départements!