Whack that sucker!

It sounds as if you have plenty of shrubs (that will grow larger once they get some sun) to buffer your side.

Cut it down in early December and use the greens in decorations.

Can you whack it and put up some sort of temporary screen (I'm thinking willow here) until your other bushes fill in? Or would that look dumb? I knoe NOTHING of yews...but am a huge believer in plant whacking. Am trying to BECOME a believer in shovel pruning. Get the theory--find myself tenderhearted in practice. Taking down the prunus mume, however, has boosted my whacking tendencies...

melanie

I like to take a long hard look at old shrubs like the one mentioned and see what can be done with it. Whacking back is a very drastic step for old critters such as the one you mentioned. So be sure before you commit. If it's an English Yew it took quite a while to get to the size mentioned. You might consider a thinning to let in air and light to the other shrubs. Maybe limb them up into a tree form showing off the bark. Yews certainly take to formal pruning well, might want to try out some wild topiary.
P.

I was thinking more of remedial pruning rather than drastic whacking. The thing has taken on a more or less tree form on its own, shaped like an upside down pyramid. The other smaller shrubs are north and northeast of it, so they're pretty much shaded out. Have to take a closer look at removing individual limbs to open it up a bit without butchering it completely and losing my screen. It does take a long time to re-establish shrubs and trees for screening, as I learned on the other side of my yard.
As an alternative, maybe I should move some of the smaller shrubs to a better location and plant a lot of ferns.

Jo

I like Perry's ideas about old yews and also your final thought, Jo, re ferns to replace the shrubs that need more light. I come across the overgrown yew problem quite frequently in my work; never seem to remember that yews can be limbed up into tree form, although I have seen it done. A good solution if it fits the site.

I adore ferns...I have a few--but so many of them require cool moist sites. I have some natives (I think---they are all over the wild woods) that have taken up residence inmy yard--they do fine in my (generally) dry shade...but the few times I've ventured further afield the ferns have suffered--adn I won't plant what can't thrive. Too bad-I LOVE Maidenhair ferns. The only succcess I've had with ferns are the "natives" and the japanese painted ferns. SO--Jo, plant some for me! I'll enjoy 'em vicariously.

melanie

I can totally sympathize, Saypoint. I have at least 15 Irish yews around the property and all of them are looking kind of sad due to wet snow this past winter and wind damage. The branches are kind of "splayed" if that is a word!

They are all about 15 feet high. They have grown quite wide as I haven't trimmed them in a couple of years. I tried just pruning off the bent branches but they are still exhibiting the tendency to bend out at odd angles. Guess I'll just have to bite the bullet and shear them with the hedge trimmers. It always leaves them looking bald!

Any other recommendations? TIA

One difficulty of heavy cutback in summer, is sunburn to bark.

How about moderate pruning to the yew now, then heavy in the cool season.

Yew is one of very few conifers that will sprout buds from bare wood.

so if you prune it to a shaped skeleton in February or March, it will fill in again, and early enough to reshade the bark before heat season.

I did a bit of light pruning to admit some light to the area. Also found a nice mockorange and a deutzia in the dense shade of the yews. Looks like the overgrowth was due more to neglect than intentional.
Jo

buffer at the edge of a house can be achieved in other ways,
the Japanese use the idea of a sleve fence. They needen't look Japanese .. In wood, bamboo or metal mine most often have the characeristic half arch top (looking like an archway cut in half long ways and filled with a lattice or some other surface that achieves an interesting line quality. Sometimes i grow a nice vine on it, or plant a small shrub or perrenial against it..
For a stronger sense of separation a short wall of stone or plaster is very intersting.
Another strategy that I use to make this separation, if I understand what you are asking ... uses one of the sleeve fence principles... i.e. making something of the corner of the house which suggests a sense of entrance. The sleeve fence is actually only one half of an entrance that visually screens what is beyond, but it also functions to subtly tell/invite a person where to walk and why, so it serves as a subtle entrance to a garden or a garden passage way.
Part of the entrance function is accomplished by the screening (suggesting what is beyond but inviting you to walk around "this way" and discover I but also informs you about paths ways etc. This can also be accomplished with a discrete planting bed of small shrubs or perennials (discrete as in a separate entity). In this bed, iv you need instant height, you could including a Fagus dawickii or something,. You would obviously know a lot about interesting trees for height, so, to get radical, about achieving some height and breadth how about a Wisteria pole or three? esp say rough stone 6x6's ten or twelve feet high.