[sal]

Hi, the house we are buying has 3 good sized conifers in the front garden, the house is a small semi and the trees are partially over the front window, they give good privacy from next door which has been rented out long term for years, but the garden is not kept and has bits of old bikes etc laying around, it looks well neglected, I' m not snobby but I don't want to look at it, I want to make my front garden nice, I havnt much of a garden and I have had to sell up my old house to get an easier house to maintain, I was diagnosed with a genetic heart problem and so no longer could do much in my old garden, my hubby also is not in the best of health, so I will now have pots and planters and hopefully make something of the front garden, but the trees just take over a third of it,,, I would like to slim them down without removing them , it may not be possible but can you give me some advice please,also hoping to get a small lean to for the back garden for salad stuff etc

[Good guy]

Hello Sal. First let me welcome you to the forum - I hope you get good information on here that helps you to make decisions about your garden.
What an exciting prospect, a brand new garden to make your own!
Without knowing what kind of conifer you have, it is difficult to be specific, but very few of them respond well to being pruned. Could you show us a photo or three? That would give everyone a better idea of the challenges and opportunities you face. If your computer doesn't resize your photos for this page, there is an easy to use app called SimpleResize that does.
You could achieve a very nice small front garden using pots and planters, as you say.
Looking forward to hearing more about your project.

[Blowin]

Out of interest, Sal, do you really want the trees or is the slimming down option something you feel you OUGHT to do, rather than get rid of them altogether. I feel that whatever you do 'up top' won't reduce the root stock which, in turn, will suck all the nutrition out of what you say is a small patch, thus denying any plants you put in?

[sal]

Yes I suppose its what I feel I ought to do thinking about it, I don't like digging out perfectly good trees,but I can find smller shrubs to replace them and I do like lots of colour in my garden, will take a picture when I ggo there again,,,