Trouble with border trees at new house

5 years ago

last modified: 5 years ago

We recently moved to a new house last year towards the end of summer. The previous owners didn't really care for the yard and there were years of leaves everywhere. We cleaned up most of the dead leaves last year and are trying to revive the yard this year. Along the border of the yard are border trees but I'm not sure what type they are. Most of them seem to be having trouble and have large bald patches. Two of them fell over and one completely died. I'm not sure if anyone can identify the trees and let me know if there's anything I can do to help them out/fill out. I'm not sure if all the dead leaves that were near the bottom of them had stunted growth/damaged them? There are still leaves that do need to be raked out on the other side of them. Do I need to water them regularly? There are quite a few.

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floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK

5 years ago

last modified: 5 years ago

The state of your conifers largely looks like insufficient light possibly exacerbated by lack of moisture and perhaps winter weather damage. It also looks as if there is landscape fabric around them which won't be helping.

Regarding the leaves. Dead leaves are the natural and healthy ground cover of woodland. They do not need 'cleaning up'. Indeed that would deleterious to the soil. The only reason to remove them would be if they were smothering a closely mown high quality lawn or small plants. And then the removed leaves should be added to other areas to enhance the soil. So leave them where they are. It's a win win,less work and better for the soil.

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Comments (8)

NHBabs z4b-5a NH
5 years ago
I agree with floral completely. Remove the landscape fabric, shred the leaves by running over them with the lawn mower if you are feeling like you want a tidier look, and then return them to the base of the shrubs as mulch. It will enrich the soil, suppress weeds, and keep moisture levels and soil temperature more even.

They may also have been planted poorly since two fell over. Dig up one of the two that fell over and check out the roots. If the roots were circling in the pots before planting and that wasn’t corrected when planted, they may not have grown out into surrounding soil and so don’t have sufficient root structure to support the plants under wind or snow and ice loads.

Do you have a goal for having these shrubs here? They are some type of Thuja AKA arborvitae, which typically are happier in more sun than your area appears to have.
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No, I don't think I solved anything, but I do think the suggestion of pulling the grass away from the tree is helpful, it was a mat of dead wet grass right up against it and the one side of the trunk base (the north side) had some green algae. I had some copper fungus spray I had just bought and sprayed that on the green and today the green is gone! when I pulled up the grass on the ground I was able to see some of the tree's thick roots so letting it breath a little more will hopefully be good while we head into our rainy season. (it has rained twice today). I I am not going to put any mulch down now since I am trying to see if letting the ground breath and dry more is helpful plus with it being summer I think trying to get rid of the grass by hand would be a losing battle, I'll keep raking the area trying to get a little more dirt away from the base and then in the winter I can put down newspaper and mulch, just hope we don't have a wet winter like last year.
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need to know where you are ... second.. ALL PLANTS WILL SUNBURN ... when going from shade to sun ... so immediately ... watch for new growth in a mnoth or so.. and all that growth should be sun acclimated ... understand that almost all shade plants.. simply tolerate shade .... and actually grow with more vigor in sun ... the downside is.. in late summer.. they start looking ratty ... hosta is the perfect example ... they multiply and clump faster in sun ... but might look bad later ... frankly .... i would increase water .. add mulch ... and find out how it all works out.. before i went and started worrying about it.. or giving away plants ... in fact.. maples being the super water hogs they are.. you might be surprised how well things end up doing ... your annual begonia are probably not going to like full sun .. i wouldnt worry about perennials ... keep in mind.. full sun ... is more of a water issue.. than a light issue ... can a given plant.. pump enough water.. during the heat of the day ... to overcome potential damage ... we could more fully talk about hosta in the very active hosta forum ... just try to drown them .. in the root zone.. not by wetting the leaves alone ... if you are in the deep south.. ignore the above.. lol ... better water that grass also ... and now that the maple is gone.. that should eventually perk up also ... the plants are severely stressed.. not hungry.. fert is not an issue ... ken
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ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
5 years ago
they are full sun conifers.. which are trees ... in too much shade.. i would guess based on uniformity of size .. that they were large transplants .. improperly planted[they are falling over] .. and not properly watered afterwards ... i suspect they felt it was just easier to move .. lol ... i also suspect bigboxstore.. and less than prime stock ...

i tend to agree with flora ...we dont have a lot of pix.. but it looks like what i might call a woodland setting ... and it might be a lot easier to roll with that.. rather than turn it into something else .... it took me a decade on 5 acres to figure that out .... lol ...

if god had meant us to bury a plastic fabric.. he would have provided plastic plants to go with it ... remove it.. and please dont think it ever works ...

now.. what to do with those arbs ... well we cant see what their propose was.. i suspect to block a view ... and if so.. its a bad place for the wrong plant.. but ugly as they are.. they might still accomplishing the goal .. perhaps you shouldnt rip them all out at one time... and in the meantime.. perfect watering ... and plant a few other things to see if they will grow any better ... i am not sure that fert would solve a lack of sun issue ... besides.. im never really in favor of such ...

welcome to the forums.. if you plan on hanging around.. plz go back to your member's page.. and put your location in.. so it appears in each post ...

you will have to do a bit of hand digging around the plants.. to figure out proper watering.. but there is a guide at the link below ...

ken

https://sites.google.com/site/tnarboretum/Home/planting-a-tree-or-shrub
sam_md
5 years ago
what floral_uk said. Your shrubs are starving for light. Notice how they only have foliage on one side.

Take them out and replace with something like Oakleaf hydrangea. Also forget the straight row, stagger them so they are natural and not fake looking.
Embothrium
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
Oak-leaf hydrangea isn't evergreen. (Or narrow and upright growing). If evergreen shrubs are wanted in this situation try holly or yew.

Keeping in mind that nothing planted in heavy shade is going to have the density it would have had in a brighter position.
Smivies (Ontario - 5b)
5 years ago
Are deer an issue or becoming an issue in your area? In that case, your existing conifers (arborvitae) or yew (as a replacement) are likely to be targeted.

As said above, the heavy shade is always going to reduce the visual density anything planted beneath.
edlincoln
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
Look like arborvitae or thuja. Like the others, I'm wondering if they don't get enough light. The other thing that worries me is that fire hydrant...it is partially buried. Was it installed that way, or did someone heap dirt into that area, partially burying it? Trees don't like to have their trunks buried.

Also, notice the baby white pine is doing fine. Looks like there was a nice "faux woodland" look going and someone plopped something in with a manicured, artificial (high maintenance) look, then wasn't willing to put in the work to maintain that look. I'd go back to the faux wodland thing.
Embothrium
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
The pine also has a thin appearance typical of those in shaded positions. The planting consists of the now frequently used Thuja occidentalis 'Smaragd'. Where there is much deer presence in my area 'Smaragd' hedges may end up with the lower portions kept browsed and narrower than the parts above deer height, resulting in a silly visual effect.

Trouble with border trees at new house

floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK

Comments (8)

NHBabs z4b-5a NH

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