Sorry for the terrible pictures. The first two are east facing and the last one is south facing.

Sorry for the terrible pictures. The first 2 are east facing and the last one is south facing.

I'm a tree hugger too but yes, there is such a thing as a misplaced tree, or stands of trees that would benefit from being thinned out. But I can't tell from your pictures what your situation is.

What kind of garden did you want to start -- vegetable, flower, shrub, ? What is the overall layout of your lot? Is it possible to garden (or sun bathe?) in your front yard? What zone or big city are you near, so people can make suggestions that suit your growing area?

Above all, don't be hasty to cut down a mature tree. Take a full growing season, so you experience the hottest part of summer, and can see directly where the trees provide shade and consider if you would miss that shade.

edited to add: I hear you about needing sufficient windows! My DH could happily live in a cave, I need to see outside!

management of your trees is no different than mowing your lawn .. or dealing with your garden .. except that you usually have to pay more for experts to do the job ...

and no tree hugging ... or hippie nonsense ... lol ... live your dream ...

i dont understand how long you have been there ... as you said you only saw it in winter ... so i would recommend you spend at least this summer seeing what comes of it all .. and then make a plan for where to go in the future ...

that would include your long views to water.. as well as your garden dreams ..

there is a lot of confusion about the word shade .. and what you can grow in it ... and we can discuss that.. if you start with some idea of what you want to grow ...

farm type veg production .... e..g... requires full all day sun.. im thinking you probably arent doing that ...

with clear sky above.. even shade can barely limit what you want to grow .. as long as you arent trying to tuck stuff down into a green canopy cave .. but ... when it all boils down.. you are just going to have to try different things to see how it all works in your yard.. your soil ... and your location .. we can opine all we want ... and it might end up being worth what you pay for it ....

phone rang.. im distracted.. ill come back later and add more ...

ken

btw: ive been a a couple national garden tours that were local ... hosta and conifer.. just about every garden had tree work done to perfect the location .. and that included removing unwanted trees.. and limbing up and pruning older trees .. its all part of gardening..

Yes you are being overly dramatic. It is hard to tell from your pictures how far the tree line is from the house, but you are going to get a lot more light in the opening of the forest than you imagine. The grass covered slopes on both sides tells me there is plenty sun out there. You would be lucky if they actually put some shade on that deck for the summer.

Having a garden in that kind of shade is not in the least bit difficult. Could you actually walk down there and take some pictures at garden level to see what you are dealing with?

You're not being overly dramatic. I have a similar situation and I'm in the process of figuring out which trees will have to go. But you definitely need to go through a summer season before you decide what to take out. I recommend taking pictures of yard, house and trees at different times of the day and on different days/weeks, to see how it all works when the sun moves around.

Contact a tree service with an arborist. The arborist can tell you if and how they can thin the canopy to let in more light. We had to have some thinning done on a very big white oak that hangs over the north side of our house. We have lived here almost 30 years and the tree was starting to hang over the house, dropping limbs on the roof during storms. They were amazing at removing the needed limbs and keeping the tree shaped well. We watched and saw how much was removed so we knew the amount removed.

I agree re: get someone in to look at what you have. Not much to see in the pics, but there are several trees with poor shape that could probably be removed.

I will definitely be waiting to see how everything looks once the trees have all their leaves. I should have mentioned that I primarilly planned on having small container garden on the lower and upper decks as opposed to right on the ground. Flowers, veggies, and herbs. There are lots of deer and other critters. I'm already learning the hard way since my basil is dead. Apparently it was too soon/too cold. I also already saw a raccoon, gopher, and fox lol. I'll be needed to figure out some pest deterrents as well. The shade from the trees will not be my only challenge.

If I were buying your home, the first thing I would do is get rid of all those trees - you’re looking at a beautiful positive view from what I can see. Why deprive yourself of that view?! Good luck

Some people think a view of trees is magnificent. I don't think you said where you live, but also consider the movement of the sun as it rises in the summer months (well, at least until the end of June). What is in shade in April will be in shade in August but the months between might have more sun than you imagine.

I know, here in the north, there is a dramatic change in the location of the sun, as well as the hours of daylight as summer approaches; I think it's less dramatic farther south, but pay attention to what it does in your area. There are probably online tools to help you visualize where the sun will be at different months and times of day.

I'm in Essex County NJ. Zone 6 I believe. The view is interesting because when the trees are bare there is almost like a city view at night from the east. Now the trees will also block that as well. But we like the trees since it gives the feeling of privacy. Oh well, can't have everything all the time. Just trying to enjoy what it is when it is. I'm taking photos regularly as the trees fill in.

Prune them. Get someone who knows what they’re doing. This is responsible maintenance. If you look in a forest or whatever you’ll see many downed branches and some fallen trees. Pruning them properly gives them the best chance for a long healthy life when sited by humans. You also should have them assessed for pests or disease. An arborist can come out with an upfront fee and tell you what to do.

I've removed several huge trees from my property- and four of them came down before we even moved in. They were that horrible- huge terrible Paulownia that were way out of scale for the property and had been hacked at so badly over the years that they looked like Tim Burton designed them.

I hate taking down healthy trees but have done so when it's the answer to a problem. I know that I've planted far more than I've killed, so I feel like my scorecard is fine.

I suggest waiting at least a year before taking any mature trees out. I'm one to talk since I have removed some trees; some of those decisions I'm happy with, others I wish I had done more homework first. When we moved in to our current place there were two maples in the back yard. I wasn't thinking much about trees at that point, but my husband had a tree company come out and assess them. They recommended the younger one be removed and we just did it. I'm not mad about that one (kids gotta run somewhere), but I have learned that tree companies will more often than not suggest removal. They did with an ornamental tree in my front landscape (that's the one I wish I'd been more careful about), a neighbor's honeylocust that had nothing at all wrong with it. I doubt you'll have any regrets taking a little time to decide.

Good luck with everything!

We spent thousands having trees removed after we moved into our current home. Some were a threat to the house, being so tall and so close. Others, like two maples, had incredibly invasive roots and you couldn't grow anything under them. Still other cast a ton of shade down. Some had leaves touching the roof, which is a way for carpenter ants to gain access to the attic. The downside of removing trees is, the house is warmer in summer due to lack of shade. So there are tradeoffs.

Definitely WAIT AND SEE!!! It's very normal, I think, when moving into a new place to worry about things that maybe you feel you didn't consider before buying the house, etc-sort of worrying about if you made the right decision, all that kind of stuff. So just observe what it's actually like in the summer before you do anything. Then, if there really does turn out to be too much shade, you could consider removing one or two, or just having the lowest limbs removed (that lets in a LOT more light).

In the heat of summer, you may well find that you are very grateful to have those trees Actually, looking at the pictures they really don't seem bad at all to me-they don't seem to be very close together, for example, nor do they seem to be overly close to the house itself. Good for you for being a "tree-hugger", too, lol. We need more people like that in this world.And remember-it only takes a few hours to cut down a tree, but it takes many, many years for a tree to grow tall and mature,so make sure you consider carefully before acting.