This big guy has grown over the driveway. I need to trim it back but I don't know how. What I've done so far looks not so great either.
by PlasmWraith
This big guy has grown over the driveway. I need to trim it back but I don't know how. What I've done so far looks not so great either.
by PlasmWraith
8 Comments
It will only continue to grow from areas that are still green. If you trim back to brown, brown it will be.
If this was my tree, I would lift the crown to just above head height, exposing ~6’ of the trunk(s).
It’s not going to grow back where you cut back to exposed wood.
Key with arbor vitae (and most other conifers), where you see brown, you’ll never see green again. That area you just cut will be brown and never grow again. Ever.
How to screw up a perfectly fine shrub by cutting it. 😢 An Arborvitae is not a yew.
As everyone has said, no new growth will sprout in the exposed area, *however* given enough time the surrounding green areas will eventually fill in that space; I grew up with a wall of these and have seen them refill holes like this. (But if you fully expose the lower trunk it’ll probably stay that way forever)
Put a family of lawn gnomes in there, that bag of chips will keep them fed.
Might as well just limb it up a bit all around now.
Can anyone tell me how far these guys spread their roots out? Do they when this size have a large underground footprint?