Looks like a juniper Bush ...

Bonsai! Its a Green Mound Juniper. With some patience could be pruned up into something pretty neat.

let me clarify this for you ...

a normal specimen of this plant.. at that size ... might be worth a hundred bucks or so ...

as the work of art it is now.. maybe a thousand ...

its up to you if you want to get rid of it ... but i think you have a bit of tunnel vision on such ...

where is this plant.. it MIGHT have some juniper tip blight issues.. or severe drought ... we would need more info in the conifer forum ... if you wish to follow up with such ... in the first pic it looks perfect.. the second pic might show some problems ...

ken

ps: whoever planted that collection of plants.. was a collector on some level ... they had some vision .. collected things unique ... try to hone in on the uniqueness of that which is planted ... but i dont get all the bare dirt??? .. whats up with that ...

1. Add some plastic eyes and plastic legs and make it into a giant beetle that protects your garden

2. Have a fav baseball team? Add a logo to the side!

3. Add entrance fees, parking fees and you're halfway to a theme park

I'd leave the juniper be. Maybe clean out the dead stuff. Was that area raked stone at one time as part of a Japanese garden?

tj

The Green Mound Juniper and/or Conifer has been there for as long as mom has lived in this house in Northern California - since the 70s. Moms intention was to make this area into a japanese-style garden. A very untalented guy started working on it. We had him cease and desist recently as he had no idea what he was doing. At the moment, the garden is at a standstill because of the "babyboot" in the middle of garden. (There is to be a path, stepping stones, mulch, etc,)

Re: ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5 comment -

Art is in the eye of the beholder. That being said, we don't consider the botched pruning job on this juniper/conifer to be artistic. (the initial photo doesn't do it justice)

So some questions:
1.) It's growing sideways (see photos below) - is this highly irregular? Kind of normal but not to this extent?

2.) Do we wait for it to fill in? And then get a pro to prune it?

Thank you!!

It is your yard, but there are many windswept junipers in nature, albeit not pruned.

tj

ETA: That hole under the arch is begging for a nice rock or some treasure for folks to discover as they walk about.

It needs to be trimmed to a nice specimen. More trunk needs to show. It does not need to fill in underneath.

In one picture it has been sheared smooth. That is not a good look.

You might be able to prop it up just a bit with a rock

Here is another picture.

Find a qualified person to shape it the first time and

after than it won't be so hard . I like what I can see of the garden.

I would guess someone has sheared it, possibly with electric hedge shears, that is one reason it looks unnatural. But it still has the potential to be very interesting.

It is almost begging to be a whimsical topiary...

some ideas:

I would contact your local Horticultural Society or Bonsai Society to get a recommendation for someone to look at it. I would think a very careful selective pruning would help it achieve a more natural or bonsai appearance.

There's only 1 thing missing from the east meets west, virtual reality, mish mash makeover..... a Mc Donalds.

Many species of juniper are not trees but shrubs or groundcovers. This one, if it is the Green Mound, is a ground cover and a very common topiary or bonsai specimen. I agree that it has been badly managed by the gardener but a talented and experienced person would probably love to have a go at it.

If this were in my yard, I would advertise for someone experienced in "Japanese style pruning", in particular. Most experienced gardeners won't know how to evaluate this plant but if you word the ad carefully, you might find someone who can properly examine it and decide whether or not it's even worth putting the time and effort into.

It's not a bonsai specimen since it's growing in the ground and not a container, but it was certainly inspired by that art form. As a matter of fact, my very first bonsai was a little Juniperus procumbens 'Nana' (Green Mound). I sold it when it was over thirty years old.

OR.....you could get rid of it! As it is today, it hurts the eyes to look at it!

What a difference!

Much better. I can see the form now which will be great as it fills in.

Thx for all input & comic relief!

==>>> you are welcome.. and i am glad you understood the humor for what it is...

just to sum it up .... you went from a mullet ... to a fine future specimen tree ...

and i bet a shiny penny,.. the bonsai dude enjoyed every minute of it .... i hope you sat there an watched ... did he charge you for doing it??/

ken

lol

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=mullet&t=ffcm&ia=images&iax=images

Very nice. I like the smoother border too.

Thanks for the update photo, I’m glad it’s going to be given a new stylish life!

Update: Need a bench (or something for end of path where blue bucket is)... but finally finished. Thx for all the input! It really helped .

Re: the bonsai question (apologies-I am very tardy in answering) “...the bonsai dude enjoyed every minute of it .... i hope you sat there an watched ... did he charge you for doing it??”

He was a man of few words and yes, 3 of us watched. He teaches the craft and studied under an expert for years. Yes - I was charged but it was worth it.

You’ll need to thin it each spring to keep the form nice and to be able to continue to see the lovely gnarled trunk. Good luck with it!