remove

Remove. Those appear to be junipers, and most junipers will not green back up when you cut back into the brown areas like that.

Off with their heads!

It looks like they got way too big for the spaces they were in, hence the butchering. It's not worth waiting anymore. I think that you may get away with just cutting them down to ground level, rather than digging them out; I don't think that they will regrow as a deciduous plant would, but check on that to be sure.

Waiting will achieve nothing :-) As already mentioned, junipers do not regrow from bare, exposed wood. And these types of junipers are far too large for the area in which they are planted so even if they were vibrant and healthy and with no dead sides, they are just NOT the right plant for this narrow bed location.

Plus they crowd and overwhelm the walkway and will stink in summer sun (cat pee).

You can make whatever suggestions you like. However, that will not counter the fact that junipers (and most other conifers) will not regenerate fresh green growth from bare wood. Those bare, woody sides will remain bare, woody sides.

Thanks for the comments, everyone! Sounds like we wil be cutting these down. Will be nice not to see the ring of death around our new house every time we drive up.

good decision .... its the front of your new castle ... no place to wait and see what might happen in a year or two ....

i suspect they were overgrown.. and some real estate person decided it all needed to be neatened up for sale ... oh well .. frankly... whether they were green or not.. they probably should have gone anyway .... within a few years anyway ...

conifers are trees... you really dont have the space for either.. in that spot ... so i would probably suggest you go with perennials ... [unless you spend some big bucks for true dwarf plants ... adn even those might get big in a decade or 2 ... though that wont be your problem ....

and if you are going to replant.. you will probably have to remove the stumps.. and i doubt any grinder is going to get in there...

so sharpen a shovel.. and get a tree saw or tree saw blade for a sawzall .... and just get digging and cutting ... even better if you have a teenage son or grandchild.. who will work for food ... lol ...

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=tree+saw+blade+for+a+sawzall&t=ffcm&iax=images&ia=images

ken

I would lean toward some kind of shrubs, because you probably want some kind of "winter interest" in the location. Perennials will die to the ground and the site will be so bare for a significant part of the year. How about appropriately sized evergreen shrubs? Or deciduous shrubs would at least offer their woody branches as something to look at in winter.

in my MI ... and i think IA is about the same ... we dont spend a lot of time gazing longingly out the windows during the usual godforsaken winters ... and the dash from the car into the house when it 20 below.. with a 40 mph wind.. isnt really conducive to looking at the landscape .... rotflmbo ...

that said.. tongue in cheek.. if you dont cut your perennials back until spring.. there is winter interest .... but i do appreciate your point ... to each his/her own ... just try to figure out the potential of a plant .. given the space constraints .... [and you can do this by finding the latin name and then using a search engine IMAGES.. to see the future ...}

ken

for example ... you dont see a lot of little plants here: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=juniper&t=ffcm&ia=images&iax=images

though you MIGHT find some named cultivars ... with much less annual growth .... though those would probably be mail order ... not bigbox finds... but you never know ...

Call your local bonsai club/society and tell them that you have some old hedge junipers that you're ripping up. Certain plants, like conifers, that have been trained as hedges or low bushes for a long time often get twisted up inside and can make great bonsais once retrained.