maackia, I've done the same thing. My justification is I was impatient 20 yrs ago to get alot of greenery fast, and now I tell myself that trees in woods are very crowded, so they can naturally deal w/it. Well, not exactly, because some crowded trees in the woods actually die from it -- that is common. More so, many just suffer increasingly more over the years. Still, this is the tooth and nail of nature. One example of many is my burr oak is a bully, and is shading over alot of stuff, and has already completely shaded over my 2 hazelnuts, which once produced an ample nut-crop yrs ago, but shaded so much now that there are no nuts & little growth. Another is my bully-honeylocust seriously crowding my longleaf pine, which has little shade-tolerance, and also reaching over to shade my pond pine. But there are exceptions, my shade-tolerant shellbark hickory is thriving in deep shade and happily pushing rapidly up into a small opening for sun.

I wonder about those pics I see of close, well-tended plantings near houses that look wonderful, but have to believe there will eventually be serious crowding.....

To add, my line of green-giant arborvitaes have indeed become giants (aspiring to their western giant arb parent), way bigger than needed for a road-screen. But at near 70 now, I don't have alot longer here, so it'll be what it'll be.

Maackia,

your first mistake is crawling behind the bushes and taking pictures of the back side of your trees! 🤣

As long as the side that people see is good, I don't worry about the 'Details'.

You'd be limited on area too if you planted every plant so that it would never interfere with any other of the surrounding plants and vice versa. Be more like an arboretum than a garden.

Your garden is your easel and you're the artist. Make it what you want.

The only thing I might've been tempted to do is lop off the left fork on that maple, years ago when I recognized it was going to be a problem for Fir, keeping them competitive with each other for sunlight. But that's just me.

And as a longtime resident of the deep woods, I've seen some real 'Works of Art' from Mother nature, making clusters of overgrown trees & shrubs into interesting displays that are 'One of a Kind' and awe inspiring.

Just my 2 cents. ;-)

Yup. I have an accolade elm and a silver birch too close to each other. I have crammed too many trees into my city lot

I believe Ben's point about patience is spot on. The majority of woody plants were obtained in small containers and I simply couldn't get my mind around what they'd look like in 10-15 years. There could also have been some serious rationalizing about about how to space them. In any case, I am a bit surprised that the Fir has completely died out on the shaded side. Most sites list it as being shade tolerant.

KR, we must’ve posted at the same time. Yes, I have some foundation mistakes as well.

I really believe there’s a psychologIcal component that needs to be explored. Are there any psycho-botanist degree programs out there?

@maackia: "Psycho-botanist". That brings up an image of a tree/shrub behind the shadows, and a shaded image appearing stabbing repeatedly w/a chainsaw. :)

ht/ Alfred Hitchcock

I think we all need the help of a psycho-botanist

My once part-sun exposed bottlebrush buckeye is now almost completely shaded by my arching Chinese elm, but it is quite tolerant of it, and happily still flowers profusely, like right now.

Long time ago, great gardener S.M. said in this forum that she deliberately overplants because she wants the enjoy her garden many, many years sooner than if she did not overplant ("... after me, the garden may well be paved over for a tennis court ...")

Her way of gardening has continual garden editing built-in.

I can understand the concept of overplanting, and I’m fully on board when it comes to perennials. I also understand and agree with the idea of garden editing. I do it all the time. Where I might differ is making decisions with certain plants that doesn’t allow them to fully develop. The Fir was planted as a specimen that I hoped would provide good garden vibrations for years to come. It’s still nice, but…

It’s still nice, but…

...it could benefit from garden editing :-)

S.M. did include conifers in her garden editing, including large trees. She had the garden size and the means. She was one of the ACS honchos that fled to FB, wonder what they are up to these days after the coup.

Don't get me wrong maacki. I understand the predicament. A cork bark fir is not a run of the mill, ordinary tree and I'll bet very few people own them.

And it is ruined as far as specimen tree is concerned. The maple looks fine btw.

But this is one of those times, and we're heard it all before, if something bothers you that much (and it would me) Just be done and get rid of it.

We've all lost trees that we had no control over, they just died, but this one will, every time you walk past it, make you feel bad. It's time for it to go.

It may be naive of me, but I’m hoping there may be some younger folks checking in here who could learn from my/our mistakes. I’ll leave the Fir for now, but I suspect it will be gone within a few years. There are things to be despondent about, but this isn’t one of them.

I am different in that way.

Out with the old and in with the new, I always say.

The sooner the mistakes are no longer visible, the sooner one can put something in that spot that makes me smile again. Yew?

Or just remove it to let the maple have it's way.

I hope it all works out for you mac! ;-)

Thats a piece of wisdom Ken often shared . why keep a plant or tree that annoys you everytime you see it? Ive come to share that point of view and now see a diseased plant as an opportunity for new one in in its place