Old Juniper hedge needs help, unsure how to start

Hello all, thanks for any help you can give-

My husband and I bought a 1946 little bungalow about 2 years ago and are trying to learn gardening as we go (the yard was ill-cared for, but has lots of good plants here and there, we still happen upon them among the weeds as we go).

So, to make a long story short, we have a pretty large juniper hedge facing the street (a busy one). The junipers average about 15' or so tall, and about 6' wide each, the total length of the hedge is about 40'. We live in Holladay, UT, in Zone 6.

Anyhow, here is the problem: this was a pretty bad winter in Salt Lake and the hedge looks TERRIBLE. Some branches are drooping and the street side is burned quite badly. Moreover, I suspect that the centers of the junipers are in need of more sun, while green on the outside, they are brown at the center. Honestly, I don't think the shrubs were pruned for years before we moved in, and while my husband and I got rid of some really bad parts, I haven't done anything else (except some fertilizer year before last). The (many) birds that visit our yard love this hedge, or I would lean towards removal...Actually, one more problem is that the junipers have some chinese/siberian elms mixed up with them that my husband and I are slowly removing (I'm thinking more mulch when we're done may prevent this in the future)

Anyhow, any help would be appreciated. I just have no idea where to begin. Can I prune now? Should I wait? We've had such a lot of snow this year that my plan to do work early in Spring came to naught. One more question - should I try tying them up before next winter like I see some people do? Sorry for all the questions, and perhaps way too much info...

Although I appreciate that the birds do love those thick tall Junipers.
Big old bushes like those really detract from a home's value and curb appeal.
I had similar 70 year old azaleas and finally dug em all up.
I planted Crepe Myrtle instead with a pasel of other plants.
It really tweaked the curb appeal here.
;)

The description of the brown inside sounds a lot like what happened to my arborvitae, and with them at least if you cut back into the brown part, it won't regrow so then the plant ends up looking even worse than it did before you pruned. I'm not sure if that happens with junipers or not. (and are you 100% positive it's juniper and not something else?)

Thank you both for the responses! It is fun to be talking with "real" gardeners, and not just my husband. Generally we just look at one another and shrug.

I am sure it is Juniper, an arborist identifies it for me because I wanted to make sure. Sugarweed, you make a good point, but I think it would be hard to live with the street noise while we waited for something to grow in. Perhaps if we did a fence. I have considered a pretty flowering hedge of some kind, maybe rose of sharon mixed with something evergreen...

This message was edited May 3, 2008 1:33 AM

Do contact your local extension agent for information on the best way to proceed to prune your junipers. I know you need to remove about 1/3 at a time per year and you want to open it up so the sunlight can get down to the inside and bottom of the plants.

It's wonderful you are keeping it for the wildlife, since they need good habitat too. Maybe you can turn this area in to a wildlife sanctuary?

I know what not to do, actually, that might help a lot. I watched it happen to my across-the-street neighbor's junipers in 1980. In fact I kept going over there so I could learn. It was Good Friday and I was home from work, and I wanted to learn how to prune. It was amazing, and I (obviously) never forgot it, and I only learned what NOT to do. LOL. The neightbor was madder than a wet hen when the trimmers got finished. OMG, he was soo mad!

Underneath the green tips will be a lot of brown dead stuff. A LOT of brown! If you clip all that brown dead stuff out, you will end up with shrubs that look like poodles. They will be brown trunks (almost always they are multistemmed underneath) with a pom pon on the end of each trunk. As big as they are now, they will be much, much smaller when you finish. NOT a good look, but mostly because everybody passing by will know what it is: old shrubs that need to be removed. IF they were selling them, and they had a fancy name, then they would be cool, right? Like those evergreens cut in a spiral? LOL!

I am sure I can drive around and snap a picture here of some if you need it...I live in an older neighborhood and there are always a few "poodle stickerbushes" before the people decide to bite the bullet and remove them. The neighbor who got so mad? I told him I thought they looked cool, very Asian. (I was about 23 at the time, what did I know about Asian in Indianapolis? LOL!) He kept them for a full calendar year and then removed them all and replaced them with something else.

I hope this helps. You could always do it with the knowledge that you will probably have to replace them, but maybe you'll like it. DO NOT trim them if you can't afford the replacements, though. Just hang tite until the replacement budget is in place, and then do it. Just in case.

Suzy