Evergreen advice please

Today, I began the task of tidying and pruning in readiness for the coming spring, and when I got to the back corner of the garden, I decided that I had to tackle one of the evergreens that had a large chunk of branches sticking out, and hanging low creating a sort of 'hole' in the tree at the same time as blocking light from the lilac that is next to it.

Out came the saw, and this is the current status:



Now, this tree is the last in a row of four evergreens, sandwiched up against a lilac (on the left in the pic), which I think is part of its problem. As everything has grown around it, less and less of it has been able to get light, hence it pushing out further and further until it became the problem that it was before I hacked it back today. Looking around the sides of it, there is very little green - the bulk of the green is higher up.

So, do I leave it as is and see what comes of it (I doubt it will recover much, if at all?), or hack it further back to create a lollipop shape tree (would that look odd in the current position?), or cut it down and allow the two trees at either side to fill out a bit?

Also, its three neighbours are in need of topping - is there any reason that I can't simply lop the tops off them with my extendable loppers?

 

Thanks @"M" - I definitely want to lop a good couple of feet from the tops of them, as they are too high for my liking. No complaints from any neighbours, but then I don't really want it to get anywhere near that as we have good neighbours. The other three look fine, although I suspect the side of the one that butts up to this one will be equally brown and barren - that said, it is at least the side that won't be seen much.

I suppose the other option is to try and encourage some sort of climber to grow up the front to hide the barren section - although what would grow where the ground is so arid because of the trees is anyone's guess.

 

How deep rooted are they? I assume they have a tap-root?

 

Aye, the neighbour is a bit brown on that side, but not nearly as bad as this one - plus the side that is brown is the side that faces the back of the garden, so will only really be seen by the people over the fence at the back, and even then it will be obscured to some degree by the lilac that is next to it.

I have to be careful, as I rent this place, so these trees are not mine - if they were, they would all be gone (I hate them with a passion too), but I had no real choice but to deal with the branch that was sticking/hanging out from the tree. As for the neighbours, I will be as conservative as I aim to be as conservative as I can be and nip the tops off them with the loppers purely to stop them getting way out of hand.

EDIT - What about planting something like a Virginia Creeper nearby, and training it to grow up the brown side of the neighbouring tree?

 

Sorry I'm late to this thread.

@noisette47 is correct . I removed 22 trees nearly two ago and have been reducing the height of Leyllandii for over 30 years.

The tree that you have cut needs to be removed as it won't recover. It won't die but Leyllandii, when exposed back to brown wood, will never grow green again in that part of it.

Lowering the height is not too much of a problem, unless they have grown very tall. They seem to be fairly mature so are likely to have a lot of strong side branches growing upwards and a thicker central 'trunk'. How much lower you cut it than the eventual height you want is not of great importance but there are a few things to consider.

It will only be the outer branches that will continue to grow as the inner ones will have already lost their growing ability from having died back. There are plenty of outer branches to not make this significant. As the branches grow in an 'arms upwards' (like a person with raised arms) you should cut the main trunk lower than the rest of it. This is usually why they recommend you cut 2ft - 3ft below ultimate height. That's normally done of you need to take about 6ft off the height but won't harm if you do it on smaller ones as long as you just take the centre trunk down that much.

The 'arms up' part only needs to be taken 6" - 9" below ultimate height (this is to give you new growth to eventually be cutting regularly, so you won't have have thicker branches clogging your hedge cutter. It's going to look quite tatty at the top for a couple of years or so but this won't be to noticeable from below if you intend to have the ultimate height at the 2 metres limit. There is usually no notice taken, even if complaints are made, if it doesn't exceed 8ft high.

Looking at your picture I presume your fence is 6ft high. Therefore I would reduce the main trunk to an inch below the top of the hedge and the arms to an inch above. Then you can let it grow about 6" before trimming the top by about 3". Then let it grow another 6" and trim back 3". Then you can keep it trimmed at that height.

That way the work won't cause any complaints from the neighbours because they won't see the tatty part that it will start with and it won't be too high for you to be able to cut easily.

From the landlord's point of view, you have just removed a tree that has 'died' and you are cutting the tops back to keep them legal.

You'll be surprised at how much waste you're going to have to cart away I presume your local dump will take the waste (some don't). If they won't take the removed tree (it looks a lot smaller than the others) you can chuck it in the boot of your car and dump it on my bonfire heap if you come to Open Day.

 

Thanks @shiney - they are well over 8 ft now, so I am doubtful that I will be going as far as taking the other three down to 6ft this year; I am thinking that my main objective this year is to get the wee one away and then just trim back the others to stop them getting majorly out of hand, maybe cutting them back properly later in the year or even next year.

You are not all that far from the truth about the tree being dead, as it all but is due to the way it has been squished up against its neighbour and the lilac. I remember the amount that I had to get rid of when the buddleia blew down a few years ago , however I will be able to get shot of the bulk of the stuff at our local tip; however I will be retaining some of the thicker stuff to use as chimnea fuel

 

There aren't any plants nearby, so that wouldn't be too much of a problem, and even once it reaches the other end of the tree line, it could scramble all over the fence if it wanted to; I suppose the downside is that it would potentially block out the light to the remaining conifers and kill them off? I would love a nice flowering clematis, but I am doubtful that one would get enough of a vigorous start to survive near the trees.