nyc =new york city??

does the fence block the sun to the lower portion???

there is really nothing to do .. lawn looks pretty nice.. like its been fert'd .. and those trees have roots out there.. so fert is not an answer ...

i doubt bugs are an issue ...

and in NYC i doubt winter was an issue ...

so all you can do ... is wait and see if they recover ...

one thing i wonder about... is if they have been going downhill .. since the fence was installed ... do you know how long that fence has been there???

dont know how deep the yard is ... but one way to fix it.. is to plant some things in front of them .. that grow 2 or 3 feet tall .. ipso presto ... the problem disappears.. lol ...

ken

I do not know when these were planted but they may have been neglected for a while no watering and no plant food I was just wondering if there was something I can give to them so they can grow out of the bare bones

nyc,

Really they don't look bad to me. Bare bones? no, they aren't bare bones. They probably trimmed them to show the house, that's all. Just make sure they get a good watering once a week in the heat if it doesn't rain. They aren't that bad looking. Don't trim them and see how full they grow in, you will see. Probably this fall they will grow more for you.

Like Ken said, plant other flowers in front of it if you want, it'll look nice.

they are trees... which have survived for millions of years without anyone feeding them ... which was the point of my lawn comment ... if that is fertd.. these need nothing else ...

they are not hungry ... they are previously damaged ...

soooo ... which side of the fence is the sun on ... cant really help if you dont answer the questions presented

too many peeps.. think food is the answer to all that is wrong.. its not ... and rarely in the tree world ...

which side of the fence is the sun on

ken

Yes we have fertilized our lawn and the side the lawn is own faces east and the otherside (where the community driveway is in the picture) faces west.

The little wire fence at the bottom faces east.

I hope I am answering your questioning correctly . Btw- am I correct by referring to them as evergreens?

I should also mention since it's not so obvious but the branches are dry and brittle and in many places there are no leaves .

'Evergreen' applies to any tree which retains green leaves all year round. So, yes, these are evergreens but that is not a name specific to them. They are evergreen conifers. Not all evergreens are conifers and not all conifers are evergreen.

Hard to tell for sure from the photos, but the hedge seems to consist of evergreen trees - possibly chamaecyparis or one of the many hybrid hedging trees.. All in all, they look quite healthy and well cared for. What often happens in plantings like this is that the lower branches become shaded out. Often this is a result of improper pruning which leaves the tops wider than the bottom, the opposite of what it should be. Again, it's hard to tell from the photo, but in your case the natural growth pattern of the trees seems to be the issue, not anything related to pruning. That doesn't mean that trimming the tops so more sun reaches the lower portions would not help stimulate growth at the bottom, though. There are no guarantees, however, that such trimming would help. The best suggestion above is probably planting something lower growing to mask the bare trunks and branches.

Do u think trimming a foot or so off the top would promote more growth at the bottom? It's not in my budget right now to plant more stuff . Just want to revive what we have planted already .... our neighbors have a similar hedge and these look awful compared to theirs . Theirs is all leafy and full

It's not so much trimming the top so that it becomes lower, it's making the top more narrow so it does not shade the lower branches. Will it work? Impossible to tell from a photo. The best thing you can do is have someone knowledgable take an in person look at your hedge. Not sure where you are, but a call to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden should give you some ideas about who to call. A soil test is also a very good idea. You can't tell whether a plant needs fertilizer from a photo, either. With due respect to Mr. Adrian, urban plantings often do need supplemental nutrition even if lawns have been fertilized. Only a test can tell for sure. I would do nothing for now until you have received some advice from county extension, a certified arborist, etc.

Have you not long been in the house?

My guess is that the previous owners trimmed them and they are feeling a bit over-trimmed. I doubt the fence installation would have hurt them, as conifers can be moved by being dug out with their root-ball, unlike Eucalyptus for example. I can't quite see what is going on but that is what it seems to me.

I agree with Ken that every man and his dog will blame lack of food when someone's plant isn't coping with a situation. It is rarely lack of fertiliser it is usually some cultural problem or a problem with an over enthusiastic human.

If they have been over-trimmed, patience is the answer. Make sure they receive enough water and sun and yes, conifers like a nice rich soil but rich soil alone won't help. Conifers like the best of everything.

Good luck.

And yes, they don't look particularly bad. Sometimes you will see a conifer hedge that has been severely over-pruned and a huge brown side is revealed. These hedges are in dire straights but I have confidence in your hedge.

They look like arborvitae, Thuja occidentalis, a very common narrow hedging plant. Used in countless landscapes all across the country. And they look exactly like the ones do around here when they have been "pruned" by deer - bare bottoms. Not saying that's your problem but the bareness is not unique and not necessarily related to any disease, insect or nutrient problem. All in all, the trees otherwise look pretty darn healthy. Does that community drive get salted in winter? Arbs have a pretty low salt tolerance.....

Pruning or trimming the top will not make the base flush out with new growth - very few conifers respond in that manner. Once the foliage is gone, it's gone, and the best you can hope for is that adjacent growth will continue to grow and fill in to cover. Since there is little to no adjacent growth at the base of these plants, that area will continue to remain bare. Ken's suggestion about planting something lower growing in front of them to disguise/hide the bareness is really about your only solution.

Any chance someone was using salt to melt ice one the driveway then blowing snow on the hedge???

What different conditions do your neighbor's hedge have from yours?
Gardengal, it doesn't look like deer damage to me. The 'nibble line' would be more higher and more even, and the foliage doesn't have that nibbled look. They don't even appear to have been pruned either, except on the very top.
Shaded out? Even that seems to be a bit of a stretch, given the amount of available light, though it looks like that.
All I can do now is rule some things out.
Mike

Look at how close they are spaced together- only the very tightest growing arborvitae (here in Iowa anyway) can be spaced that closely and give a respectable, narrow hedge. My guess is that at some point in the past the hedge dried out significantly and a decent amount of the foliage went with it. Actually saw that a decent amount here in the drought of 2012- inner foliage went first and then it was random what went next- sometimes the bottom, sometimes the top, and more often the entire plant. That would explain the randomness in the dying out. My other guess (as someone else has already stated) would be that the bottom was significantly shaded but that does not appear to be the case based on the photos.

Or, they could have also purchased cheap B grade plants from Joe Landscaper or at a Big Box Store and the hedge has never looked good from the day it was installed. So many possibilities!