If you are somewhere reasonably normal (northeast, or midwest, zone 7 or colder), wait until spring, then cut them back to 12-18 inches.

Older pictures of my house shows large yews in front. At some point before we moved in, they were cut down and somehow killed (brush killer maybe???), with the stump cut off at ground level. Seven years we've been here and those stumps are still in place -- we planted new stuff around them. Their roots have not been a problem.

I tried to get rid of 2 mature Japanese yews a few years ago. I cut them down low to the ground and then tried to dig out the stump. Unless you have a back hoe or excavator, I don't recommend trying to dig out the stump. After digging down 18" or so, the trunk hadn't narrowed one bit. I have no idea how deep it was. One stump never regrew. The other grew a few small branches, which I cut off and I'm pretty sure the stump is dead now. I didn't poison it in any way.

if you want to know how they will respond.. where you are.. you have to tell us where you are ... big city name..

in my ground freeze MI .. if you cut them to the ground.. it might take 5 to 10 years to recover.. and the front of your house will look like carp for many of those years ... but somewhere like the PNW where its an almost year around growing season... .. they might bounce back faster ...

and that is the real key.. this is the front of your house.. not the backyard where you can experiment with stuff like this..

frankly.. you could reduce the value of your house by 25% if you make a mess of the front yard ...

imo...remove them... call miss dig.. ID all buried utilities.. sharpen a shovel.. and get to work ...

cut the plant back to about 3 feet.. leaving just old trunks to rock the thing.. and then just start digging about 2 feet out fromt he trunks.. it will be slow hard work.. but just keep at it ...

often the soil i ridiculously hard since it hasnt been disturbed for decades.. and watering it heavily a week ahead of time.. might help ..

or better yet.. hire some local kids.. if you can find any willing to climb out of the basement and earn some money ...

just get rid of them ...

ken

Yews are immensely prunable.......probably the best conifer to respond well to hard pruning. They can be cut back to almost ground level and will regenerate successfully, although it will be a slow process.

Without photos, it is impossible to say how far back the yews in question should or could be cut back and how that would impact the appearance of the front garden and for how long.

Hi everyone, thanks for all your help and suggestions. I’m in southern Illinois, zone 6b, closest town is Carbondale. One of the bushes that I cut back to the brown is responding with new growth. I think I’ll probably remove these buses,

but I feel bad doing so…We have a number of overgrown bushes to deal with.

The yews along the side of my house looked similar, maybe a little smaller but at least a good 50 years old. I cut them down to about 8-12 inches in the late winter and now keep them trimmed to about 20 inches. It probably took about a year and a half for them to fill in nicely again.

Two I removed completely. The first I cut and dug. That was a huge mistake since the roots went down to god knows where and were rock solid. The second I took my reciprocating saw, cut off the top branches and then cut each root as it flared out of the base of the shrub so that the stump came up. The root stubs are just below the surface now and will probably be there for the next 50 years until they rot, but at least I only spent 20 minutes rather than killing myself for two hours.

The other thing to do with old yews is to open them up, trimming out lower growth to show large trunks and letting the upper parts grow naturally. I've seen this look and it's quite handsome done well.

Hi rowebsutton! I live in your area! I’ve been a member of gardenweb/Houzz for a very long time and have never known of anyone from my neck of the woods! Just last week I had 50+ year old yews cut down from the side of my house. They were 7-8’ high and wide. I know it’s a major project but am so happy to rework this space. Eight years ago we pulled out a row in front of our house and I am thrilled with the results. We may use a stumper on these. Not sure yet since we aren’t done cutting and clearing.

Before:

After:

The stumps are 20-24” wide and very hard wood.