You cedars may have gone into the winter with soil too dry. Cedar prefer a moist soil, especially over the winter. In any case, the first winter is always tough on any sort of evergreens exposed to a lot of sun. It's best to cover them with burlap or shelter of some sort for the first few winters at least. Easier to do with just a few specimens than a whole hedge. Trim off the brown when you have the chance to encourage new green growth. I'd try to give them a good watering, especially before winter comes if the browning occurs over the winter. At my house the deer eat cedar like salad so I've given up on the cedar hedge dream after years of attempts. They eat up as far as their necks reach and the greenery only exists beyond that. Good luck, a cedar hedge is a beautiful thing if the deer let you grow it!?

That post was a year old, another winter has gone by and a few more cedars have browned this winter and I know for a fact it was due to lack of watering. Now I have 60 healthy ones and 5 that are not.... I have a ponderosa pine and Pom Pom pine that both took heavy sun burn damage on the south side. I really hope I can recover them all. Honestly, it is quite the task keeping everything watered and our summers are fairly dry. I think I will try to do a drip system this year.

Yep, when the autumn is on the dry side, I get a workout tending to the watering of evergreens. So far at least the 'Yellow Ribbon' and 'Holmpstrup' are looking very good, though 'Emerald' has somewhat browned and 'DeGroot's Spire' has taken a substantial hit and winter isn't done with us yet! I guess, late March and early April is to dish out some daytime highs close to 15 C below normal, ouch! Alberta is a harsh climate, it's not uncommon to get a dump of snow in early October and plants go from actively growing to being stopped dead in their tracks by killer frosts. This past November was the third coldest on record (and it sure did feel like it!) and spring is often slow and tortured.