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Ornamental Conifer - bare branches issue
NorthernJoe
Posts: 660
We're moving into a new house in a week and the front garden has a Conifer that's say 3m high but wider at the base and has very prickly covered branches. Yellow green in colour IIRC.
It looks like it became overgrown and someone cut it back, away from where it was overhanging the pavement. I suspect it was a neighbour when the previous owner had died or gone into hospital/home. The result is brown, dead branches instead of healthy, green/yellow needles. As a kid my dad cut back a leylandii back a little too hard to have this effect and it never really grew back.
My question is how to reduce the size of this tree in the diameter without causing this dead branches look or how to get it to true back green again? If not possible then what's going to be a good replacement? It's in the corner right at the front giving the house privacy from the pavement and neighbour's front garden. It's wide and high enough to block off the garden for privacy. I'm thinking it'll take ages for anything to fill the gap it's own. Perhaps a few shrubs that will grow out and up a little bit still provides interest, ideally year round.
So ideal is to recover the existing tree but if not possible replacement with suitable tree(s)/shrub(s).
It looks like it became overgrown and someone cut it back, away from where it was overhanging the pavement. I suspect it was a neighbour when the previous owner had died or gone into hospital/home. The result is brown, dead branches instead of healthy, green/yellow needles. As a kid my dad cut back a leylandii back a little too hard to have this effect and it never really grew back.
My question is how to reduce the size of this tree in the diameter without causing this dead branches look or how to get it to true back green again? If not possible then what's going to be a good replacement? It's in the corner right at the front giving the house privacy from the pavement and neighbour's front garden. It's wide and high enough to block off the garden for privacy. I'm thinking it'll take ages for anything to fill the gap it's own. Perhaps a few shrubs that will grow out and up a little bit still provides interest, ideally year round.
So ideal is to recover the existing tree but if not possible replacement with suitable tree(s)/shrub(s).
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Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
One conifer had a thigh sized trunk growing out of a stump that was considerably larger looking out just above the ground by a few inches. It's like a large ball of a base about 2 or 3 feet wide. If that was the size of a trunk you'd expect a tree possibly quite old. It was strange growth. TBH I don't know what to do with it. I doubt it'll dig out without a fight. One surface root was at the limit of my dad's electric chainsaw even if we could dig it out to cut through. Might have to plant something to cover it over.