Hi Janet, As always, you were informative, funny, and down-to-earth at the Northville Community Center this past Monday night. You mentioned large spruce trees and that is one of my problems. Our spruces are over 20 years old and were planted to provide an accent at each end of our yard. The past years have found them to be more and more sparse with bottom branches dying off and providing no privacy at all. Such height, such pitiful see-thru bottoms.
To top it off, our new neighbors put their kids' very tall wooden climbing structure right in line with our bedroom window. A landscaper thought hemlocks would grow well between the spruces, so planted three of them last year, but as you will see they aren't doing much of anything (will they ever?).
So I guess my questions, in the midst of my despair over wanting a beautiful private yard, is what to do with giant trees that provide nothing at the bottom? should I have them removed? What would block the playscape at that height? Should I just move? Thanks so much. - J. K. -
(J.K.'s photos, Janet's narrative)
They're big. And from some angles, look good.
But from down here, they're not so good.
And at ground level looking across, they're not spruces; they're just posts. Columns.
Tough to say but we do NOT have to commit to every tree for its entire natural life. These trees prove what we say: Colorado spruces are good for 20 years in most landscapes. And this pine was done contributing at 10.
With your photos up here, let's see if anyone has suggestions to add to mine. I hope so.
My thoughts:
That you should take those spruce trees down. And the pine.
The ...maple?... at the far right in the one photo isn't helping your privacy cause, either. If it's a Norway maple it's actively discouraging other plants' growth.
Try not to despair about this prospect. Just consider it.
Those trees are doing nothing for you (except from the very long view. Meanwhile, they're doing EVERYthing to discourage and scramble your other plantings' health and looks. Hemlocks tolerate shade, they don't love it, so they are not going to do well there. By the time they take, if they do, they may be scraggly 6' versions of the 60' spruces.
It will be a big expense, I know, and at first, until the removal, a huge gut wrenching change, but the trees are not healthy, not going to get better, are taking the water and blocking the sun, and their trunks are visual distractions for anything you put up.
I think you will be happy with the change after you get past the separation anxiety.
Leatherleaf viburnum will grow quickly and if strategically placed, give you immediate relief. They are also wider at the top than the bottom which makes them better blockers than other evergreens that are pyramidal.
Densely branched large shrubs and small trees would also help. Japanese crabapple. Kolkwitzia and Vanhoutte spirea. Probably have to move some of the other plants you've put into the gaps, to make the whole new arrangement pleasing.
Help us, you readers? Do you have a property line you re-did and are happy with? What worked? Recommendations about taking the big trees out one at a time or in stages -- or not at all?
