i think i would have taken the walk to get the pruners.. to snip them off .... but if it worked without tearing the branches... ok in my book ken

By the way, 12 cedar trees from BB HD a year earlier also turned brown and died. ==>>> so if i understand correctly... EVERYTHING you have bought.. from bigboxstore has died.. or is dieing... and you want us to tell you why?? am i with you so far???? well... wait for it... its because you are buying carp stock from a freakin hardware store.... buy quality stock.. and avoid these problems... you cant turn a bad plant.. into a good plant with fertilizer.. good soil... or anything else ... just stop buying bad plants... especially end of the year bargains .... this is a case of trying to make a bargain work... and with trees.. it doenst work all the time.... mail order some quality stock from some place like conifer kingdom... or any local SPECIALTY conifer nursery .... and 99% of your problems will be solved [. this will not help the one planted 6 inches from a wheel-less car.. next to an 8 foot wall ... well it looks like a cinder block there ...] and with your desire.. and limited space.. you need to look for mini conifers... so you can collect a few .... and use very little ground .... below is a pic of 15 or so mostly mini conifers around my patio .... i admit i screwed up on putting a few small dwarfs there .. but one thing for sure.. you wont find these at the hardware store.... ken

I agree and thanks guys for pointing me in the right direction, I really like the curves compared to my straight lines on the dog bone bed. The curves on the bed connecting the arbor will make my picea pungens 'hoopsii' and Picea glauca 'pendula' really pop! I like this much more than the round circle I had before that made these trees blend in. Dave perhaps this fall I will take measurements off my yard and work on this over winter. Right now I just want to get a basic scetch of what I think could look good. I won't be putting these beds in until fall 2012. Tonight I'll lay the roundup down for the arbor bed, mark the spot for the plants, etc to get it ready to plant in 6 weeks pending weather. A garden hose is definitely easier to use and lay out curves, I just use rope because the beds are very large. Just an example, the bed I have to the right of my house, I have about 400' of rope down to create this bed. The cost of rope is much less than the cost of hose. When I add those 3 beds to the back yard I'll lay out all 3 beds at once just to make sure I really like it. If I do one bed at a time with my water hose, I may not like the overall design once all 3 beds are in place. What looks great on paper could look bad in person and vise versa. I use 1/2 pink hose, it shows up pretty good and I can easily see the layout from the second story window. I took your design and modified the middle bed to force the design to stay out in the yard and not so close to the house. I couldn't have it wrap around the kidney bed like you have it only because it would have put the small bed to the far right of your scetch in the back deck. With this design, I should have around 20' of space. I may or may not make the middle bed arch out on the other side a little instead of a half circle. It'll depend on how much room I'll have.

it is not a cultivar.. not a variety .. its the species.. and they grow them as telephone poles ... embo in the conifer forums.. also said.. with many more words.. that he does not see any weeping habit ... when that leader stops growing this season ... you can SEE ... its annual growth rate .... you can also look closely and see last years.. the bark will be one year older and different ... perhaps no needles hanging on.. or lesser anyway ... ken https://www.google.com/search?q=picea+glauca+forests&site=webhp&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjAnOH556nUAhXBjFQKHe40CiwQ_AUIBigB&biw=920&bih=743 yours shows no traits consistent with picea glauca pendula https://www.google.com/search?q=picea+glauca+forests&site=webhp&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjAnOH556nUAhXBjFQKHe40CiwQ_AUIBigB&biw=920&bih=743#tbm=isch&q=picea+glauca+pendula here is my P g pendula as a babe