As I have mentioned my trees are learning at the same time as me.  Both the apple and plum trees that I bought from Reighton Nursery were very leggy and spindly, they were in bad need of pruning to produce the bush shape I am looking for.  So in early March after much reading and deliberating I decided to prune the apple trees.  From what I have read the plum trees shouldn't be pruned until they are actively growing so as to avoid the risk of them contracting silver leaf so they will have to wait.  I tried to prune the apples back to at least three strong branches leaving a bud at the top of each branch.  The trouble was that because of their age there were no buds formed as low down as I thought necessary to prune them.  So instead of pruning to an outward facing bud I pruned to where a bud had been in the past.  So far it seems that I chose correctly as buds are forming where I expected them to.  The trees will be a little late coming into leaf but I think they will all survive the treatment and eventually be better shaped and stronger trees for the experience.  I hope!  Comments and advice would be most welcome.

The tree below is a Spartan apple and along with my pruning it is showing some rabbit damage.  But the good news is that it is now budding up very well and I should have a good choice of branches to leave next year.  I just hope all my trees respond this well. 

The two pictures of plum trees below show just how leggy and spindly the trees had become, the apples were in a similar state before I pruned them.  I think I am going to have to do a similar job on the plums.  Despite being very spindly the stock from Reighton Nursery seems very healthy and they are priced very well.

Below is one of my two Victoria plums.

 The tree below is my Opal plum, clearly in need of pruning.