get rid of it ... its overly mature... and planted when it was a babe..too close to the house.. with no concept of its growth potential ... to me.. it simply doesnt matter what it is ...

but it is probably an arb.. a thuja ...

i doubt it has anything to do with the water problem... but i bet a nickle.. having been there 20 or 30 years ... you cant regrade the soil.. for all the roots there.. and by the time you do.. it might die anyway ...

if and when you re landscape .... use the latin names of the plants you might buy.. and ask us.. what the potential might be.. in 10.. 20 .. or 30 years ... so you dont make the same mistake ..

ken

The first spring I removed a Yew, nearly as tall, that was next to the front porch. Hubby allowed me to take it out when I showed him it was on the poisonous plant list because we have pets and young grandchildren.

I keep hoping this one is also poisonous so he won't object.

I'll look up thuja.

The Thuja could be the problem with the basement leaks if the roots have clogged the foundation drain.

I see you are on a slope. Is the ground higher behind the house than the top of the foundation?

Mike

Thuja occidentalis 'Smaragd'. Cutting off the bottom has now spoiled its appearance, and columnar shrubs at building corners is not an attractive effect anyway.

Thank you all for the help.

Yes, we have a sump pump, a very busy one. The uphill is behind where I stood to take the photos, the far end of the house has the walk-out basement door. We are re-grading, installing underground drains and have no clue as to whether foundation drains were installed when the house was built in 1975. We're guessing not because the sump pump was added in the 1980s. Already started or planned are several rain gardens to protect our downhill neighbor and decrease mowing.

As for spoiling the appearance, I have a photo of how it looked when we moved in. The bottom branches were dead and irregular. Not attractive and a collector of stink bugs.

What to put there is my next concern. I don't think I want a tree, maybe not even a large shrub. I've been reading that it's best to leave a bare area around foundation to decrease hiding places for the asian stink bugs (a big problem here, completely different than the west coast), gnats and ticks.

Moving from central California has put me in unfamiliar territory. Year round rains, more bugs than birds, and a 50/50 shale and clay soil.

1976 Modular Home - slowly updating · More Info

"I've been reading that it's best to leave a bare area around foundation
to decrease hiding places for the asian stink bugs (a big problem here,
completely different than the west coast), gnats and ticks."

"Foundation plantings" do not have to be right up against the house to be aesthetically pleasing. That is a #1 newbie mistake.

But you can plant them a bit farther out and accomplish the same look. Just research the estimated mature size of everything you plant and make sure it will end up a couple of feet away from the house.

You need room to walk enough to maintain the house, wash the windows, and prevent all sorts of pest and mildew/algae issues.

Also getting the plants far enough out from under any eaves means less hand watering and less chance of spider mites.

So you don't have to do "bare" as nice foundations plants make a house look nestled in and not just plopped down on a plot of land.

Just put things in the right place.

Whatever the outcome here, I have no particular opinion one way or the other. But I couldn't help noticing the "poison plant" thing rearing its ugly head yet again in this thread. To wit, OP used the alleged toxicity of Japanese yew to justify its removal. Truly, if the bar (measuring toxicity/nontoxicity) has been set that low, I'm afraid we must immediately begin removing all vegetation from our homes and yards. What's going on? Just in the last few days-here and on other boards-yew being cited for its toxicity and consequent danger? I've lived around that plant my entire 59 years to date. Has there ever been one citation......one mention...of poisoning from yews? None that I'm aware of. My gawd, what are we becoming? How do we collectively handle the shock and revulsion of seeing our own frightening reflections in the mirror each morning?

Thanks. Foundation plants are new to me, another learning challenge.

Because of recurrent droughts where I spent most of my life, the area closest to the house was used for bulbs, flowers, herbs, vegetables and strawberries. I usually edged the driveway with roses. They thrived in the run-off from the rare rains and even rarer car washing. I haven't seen a thriving rose in the 2 years we've been here. Probably a soil issue because most can handle a winter snow just fine.

The downhill side of the front porch has rhodendroms, stepping down in size like the 3 bears. I was able to get behind them and the large Bridal Veil Spires to prune the bottoms and pull invasive thistle.

Morning sun hits the chimney wall. Could I use rhodedendrums to replace the tree?

We've thinned out the enormous lilac bush-tree on the morning sun side of the porch. My daughter argues against removing it, but it is covered in mildew every August - October and seems overgrown to me.

The one thing I know for sure is that regular pruning was neglected for many years.

Yews were common around older homes in Bakersfield, CA. We were visiting some of our richer relatives on the opposite side of town one summer, I was about 10yr old. The boys started playing with the berries, then daring us younger kids to eat them, proving it's okay by doing the same. One cousin even said the native indians ground them up for food. Our parents plan for an all day, into the evening gathering came to an abrupt halt when 2 kids got sick enough that they were taken to the hospital.

I have planted "poisonous" plants, but not where babies and toddlers play. My first rain garden includes rhubarb and my second has nicotiana. Both are in the front lawn.

The yew I took out is in the photo at the corner of the front porch
steps. Someone had already hacked the top off and it was spilling onto
the porch. Since I had a grandchild at the "explore by eating" phase I
wasn't about to take a chance. Unexpectedly, I found carpenter ants at
the base when I dug out the big roots.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-norfolk-26089688

http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/sis/search/a?dbs+hsdb:@term+@DOCNO+3541

The first reference above may have been an accidental ingestion of yew berries, leaves or the chemical Taxine in pond water.

The second reference lists multiple deaths from ingesting the berries or an attempt to make hallucinogenic or alcohol substitute beverages.

Tell the kids the berries are poison and that should be it. Also, poison doesn't necessarily mean deathly.

Yews are fairly common and the problem is so minimal that it's almost non existent.

Mike

Right^. I wish more folks understood the difference between the meanings of the words "poison" and "toxic". Usually used interchangeably, they have very different meanings. So, if a substance is poisonous, one episode of ingestion or contact would be enough to kill a person or animal outright. That's poison. Toxic...well....cigarettes contain toxins, right? And a person can smoke those things for decades before the bad stuff happens. That's toxic. Nor does a toxic substance automatically have to lead to death. Some drugs are considered toxic, but the bad effects are well short of death. These words are very widely misunderstood I'm afraid.