Well how friendly are you with your neighbor? Would he spray your plants? I know my neighbor "trims" my redbud in the front of my yard. It could be wind burn. Prune off the dead branches and see what happens when the weather breaks.

Here is a link that might be useful: Propagating Perennials

arbs are conifers.. there is a conifer forum.. but lucky you.. we cross over often ..

ignore them this year.. and see what they do ....

mostly ...on conifers.. if there is not green on a branch.. the branch is dead... always exceptions ...

but you may as well wait until mid summer.. to see what develops ... if green develops.. on a branch.. it will fill in over the years .... if nothing.. then you may as well PROPERLY prune it out ....

i doubt any of us will agree with the neighbor.. just pulling out dead branches ... unless they meant just knocking the lose needles out ... lose needles should be removed ....

any chance at a picture???

ken

Are the trees yours or the neighbors, or mutually owned (ouch)? If they are yours, are they sticking over the property line - and if so, will the neighbor let you go over and keep any weeds down - it sounds like he would?

If he will let you, and if they are your arbs, I would keep the weeds down in the future - you have seen what persistent shade will do to the arbs. I would wait and see if you get any green breaking from the brown branches, and only prune off - with pruners, loppers or a pruning saw, NOT breaking off - what is clearly dead around the end of June or so.

As Ken says, taking off the clearly dead needles is a good idea - if nothing else, it will look better, and it will let light into the plant. Try shaking the branches gently, or gently sweeping your hand down the branches - wear gloves as the dead needles can prick - if the needles don't come off easily, leaves them for another day - they MIGHT still be trying to live.

It IS possible the arborvitae won't come back. In that case, you need to decide if the "half" trees are OK for you, or if you want to remove them and replace them with the same or different plants. The row WILL look different, no matter what you do, so work from there.

If I get a chance to post a pic, I will, but I'm not sure how to do it.

I appreciate all the rec's. These are our trees and the neighbor will work with us, I'm sure. We'll have to do the work as they do nothing to their house but we're used to that. At least they're cooperative. They "let" us cut down their towering black locust trees when we were getting rid of all of ours. Now that roots are growing back, we'll have to take care of those as well!

I'll follow your advice and see what happens. For pruning, how do I do it to rid the dead branches? Certainly a novice at this but learning every day...

If you're certain an entire branch is dead, simply cut it off right at the trunk. There may be a swollen area right where it emerges from the trunk-called the branch collar-which should still be there when the branch has been removed. But don't leave stubs.

BTW, the small folding pruning saws that can be had at the hardware store have come a long way in terms of quality. Corona makes a good one and there are others. If you see one with the ARS or Turbocut label on the blade, that's a good one. Cuts like butta..

Also, for small cuts, a good quality lopping shears will work well.

+oM