Removing Trees in a Tree Line

by helen
(marysville wa)

My house has several trees, about 40 evergreen type pine trees on the south side of the house and they are about 10 to 15 feet away from house. We have way too much shade and need to thin it out.

How do we do it. They are super close together, maybe 2 - 3 feet apart.

We also have a large maple that reaches through them. The maple is full of aphids and there due mists everything in yard and on cars. Yikes what a mess!

Answer

Hi Helen,

You have a few options regarding removing the trees. I will assume you still want some privacy…just a guess!

Remove them all and start over with a nice design.
Remove the trees to get a fresh start. (I understand this is a big undertaking.) Add 3 to 5 evergreen trees at the appropriate distance apart based on mature width. You can do this in a few areas down the row.

Your yard looks narrow, so you might consider narrow growing evergreen trees. In between the groups add masses of shrubs (where you don’t care that much about privacy).

Remove most, but not all of the trees.
Leave groups of them where desirable. The issue you will have with this is that the end trees that remain will be bare. So this could be a problem aesthetically.

What to do about this? Either plant a nice tree to hide this or trim them up the best you can.

As far as the Maple goes, this tree should be reviewed by an arborist. At the best, it should be sprayed with the right insecticide. Worst case scenario is that it should be removed also.

This is a case where you have to be knowledgeable about trees as replacements. You might want to take a look at my book Trees For Landscaping which lists many trees ornamental, shade and evergreen) and helpful information about each one.