or it was winter damaged and they cut out the dead????

any idea where this was???

Have you not seen cutaway engines to show the inner workings? They likely wanted to show the inner workings so they cut away and cut away and cut away...

tj

Well you can certainly see with all that other planting in the yard why they felt having this one there as well was just too much.

Lol. I just did something similar with a maple tree that's crowding another tree next to it. (The other tree will live or they will both die!) Not quite that bad though: that is just going to look like that forever; no? I mean, Arborvitae don't grow from old wood; do they?

Hopefully they went on to cut the rest of it off and dig it out. (FWIW plant shown is a Platycladus).

Probably thought having the conifer out by the pavement was interfering with their 'curb appeal' - there seems to be a prevailing view at this time that an attractive setting for a house consists of foundation planting surrounded by nothing but lawn. Whether an exposed foundation is involved or not.

They did cut the rest out and removed the stump too.

There was an entire website devoted to plant murder by pruning.

it began with “crape murder” and insults against crape mrytles

you might google around and find it. It was informative and somewhat horrifying

I'm glad it's gone now but why didn't they finish the job in one fell swoop?..my husband could finish that job in about 5 mins..

Check out PlantAmnesty. At garden and flower shows in the PNW they have used humor, photos and education to encourage appropriate pruning.

Not sure why isn't wasn't finished at one time. An elderly couple lives there. Perhaps a medical situation put the job on hold.

YES, PLANT AMNESTY!

enjoyable

It looks worse because there is another directly to the right that hasn’t been pruned. It’s like a living before and after. This was done 6 days ago. No idea how it will turn out.