How many of the trees pictured will be coming down? What is the distance from your porch to the road, and how wide is the property? That will make a difference in the type of tree(s) you can plant or how you decide to landscape the property.

Unfortunately the trees were planted too close to one another. From the left, I see what looks like a mature spruce evergreen and a very large arborvitae right next to it. You can't let the evergreen there on its own. So I would not disagree that they should come down.

Wait awhile before you plant, because even if you have the stumps ground it will take a bit for the roots to decay.

In the mean time, find out what native trees do well in your area. In addition, one or two ornamental trees closer to your house will give you a sense of privacy. Locate them so you can see them out the window.

You do not want to see the street or the street seeing you?

Somewhere behind those trees is a lovely home (from the little I see) and you should be able to see it from the road.

yes thanks yardvaark and angel, I do love my home and I feel like these strange trees need to go. great advice by houssan to wait until the roots diminish and look around then decide what we’d like to do

A balance of privacy and visibility makes sense. Once the trees are removed, you'll have a better idea of your need for privacy from the street. We suggest that you consider planting to take advantage of perspective. Consider views from the porch and from inside the house as well.

Take a look at our blog on landscape privacy for tips on defining your privacy goals: https://www.vanzelst.com/blog/living-fences-make-good-neighbors/.

I would first try having them trimmed up higher from the bottom, but only a little at a time...you can't glue it back on. Have them trim some, then look at the house from all angles and sides, then have them trim more until you are satisfied. Never leave this to landscapers to figure out. It is your property.

I'd be cautious about removing anything when you aren't sure. These are mature trees 10-20 years old. Why not wait until you have a clear plan? Yes, remove the one that's dead. Then take the time to decide an overall plan for the front yard. I can't really tell, but it looks like a row of trees across the front of the yard, and then nothing on the side. That seems odd. If it were me, I'd have a landscape architect over for a consultation and to discuss your options. They may recommend removing some but not all of the trees, for example.

Thanks yardvaark. We dont want large trees right in front of the porch since we don’t want to hide the stone. There will be no towel drying going on out there either, lol. Yes girl wonder, I agree that we need a landscape designer in to discuss options. We actually had one already and spent so much and he had suggested at the time getting rid of those and just doing something along the side but we left them because we needed to stick to our budget but now that they are dying and looking Worse I think it’s time.

There is absolutely no reason to wait until the old roots rot in order to plant. Roots grow among each other all the time--as they are already doing.

"We dont want large trees right in front of the porch since we don’t want to hide the stone." I wasn't remotely suggesting that. I was drawing a comparison between hiding house from street and hiding porch ... trying to get to the bottom of WHY the house is being screened from the street. I did not detect an answer.

yardvaark, we did not plant those trees, the previous owner did, so I have no idea.

Quite frankly I'm not interested in seeing the road or having the road see me and I would always want to have as much privacy as possible; shrubbery/trees easily give me that. I would consider replacing the trees with large shrubs--I'm talking 12-15 ft tall and wide. Then you would have privacy down to the ground (you'd no longer see the road) and flowers as well. You don't give your zone, so it's impossible to make useful suggestions, but in my zone (6A) I've used Viburnum pragense (evergreen), Viburnum sargentii 'Shenandoah' (deciduous), and another evergreen Viburnum whose name I can't remember. Abelia mosanensis and Magnolia stellata would also work--fragrance with both.

Thank you both. I’m in zone 7a. They have come down.

What a nice neighborhood! Now you can take your time and think about how you want to frame the house with a few trees.

Yes thanks houssaon. Will keep you posted:)

Answering the question of what to put in place of the trees, I'd recommend sod in order to heal the scarred lawn. The area is too close to the drive and street for shrub obstructions and there are already street trees nearby. If you are trying to hide some of the property across the street, then place a dome shaped shrub about 15'-20' from the street and 10'-12' from the drive. (Placing it too close to street or drive will be a disadvantage in one way or another.) The acceptable shapes to prune it to are dome or tapered cylinder. (If you prune to a ball, you'll ultimately be creating a mushroom shape tree form where the stem would be short stilts.) It could have a square footprint if you prefer. I'm not saying that placing a shrub there is ideal regardless of other circumstances. It's ideal if it solves your problem. If you don't need it, stick with sod only.

I would be limbing up the street trees a little for cleaner appearance and so it's not a bigger job later.

Examples of dome shaped shrubs, circled in red, especially at the background. It could be evergreen but doesn't seem that it must be, which would open up the the options in shrub selection.