Congratulations on your first year! I know exactly how you feel about wanting to do things on your own with your own preferred methods. After all it is your gardening journey!

The way I approach it, I will listen to the advice or do my own research of different methods and pick and choose from all that what makes the most sense to me. Sometimes I will just experiment with things by myself and it ends up to be more like trial and error, you know. I learn a lot from mistakes and I love making mistakes because there is always some knowledge at the end that I can collect as a result.

Where is fun in life without a little bit of risk too? The experts might tell you - I told you so, but I find learning by myself feels like some sort of achievement.

Good luck with your trees and garden! :)