I Just Don't Know What to do with Yew.

Apparently the spiders love this thing.

This big massive green thing in my front yard is an English Yew Hedge. They can be really beautiful and apparently are a type used in topiary gardens in Britain.  

I spent my first Saturday morning in the yard. The yew proved to be a challenge.

I understand the yew in my yard has been here for several decades and had gotten so overgrown. It's just too big! It's great for privacy, but when I first bought the house, I had to toddle sideways to get up the steps. It's also a haven for spider webs, birds feast on the berries it produces and the crickets absolutely LOVE to hang out under it. I had my contractor trim it back until I figure out what to do with it, but whenever it gets trimmed, the cut ends almost immediately turn a golden brown color. If they aren't cleared away immediately, they make the entire hedge look dead.

No, it's not dead, There are just dead needles on it. Not very pretty.

I'm not tall enough to reach the top and middle of the plant so maintenance is definitely an issue. The plant has grown so large that it has a little vestigial twin that I didn't notice for a few weeks. It's actually part of the main plant but at some point in history, this piece got cut down and now looks like a separate hedge.

This is the baby version of the Yew. I think I like it this size. It's about a foot shorter than the grown up one.

This poor azalea was choked by shedding needles from the yew. I hope I can save it.

Another surprise is that the yew had been growing up over a fledgling azalea bush. I hope to plant more of these once the yew gets cut back some more. Overall, I have a lot of thoughtful work to do! Here are a couple of my options.

OPTION 1:
Keep the hedge but trim it to a size I can manage. The downside of this is that it could take a full year for the leaves to come back so I would have to live with a ball of sticks.


OPTION 2:
Get rid of the hedge in its entirety. I would feel a little guilty getting rid of the whole thing, but I could replace it with several smaller hedges.

I don't really know what I'll do yet, but in the meantime I'll keep the yew trimmed and neat.

Thanks for reading!