Pruning Juniper Bush

Question

I’m very new to gardening, so please bare with me! We just moved into a new place that has a very sick-looking juniper in the front yard. I’m not sure what I need to do to get it looking decent again. There are lots of bare limbs and the whole bush is growing very crooked, but digging it up is not really an option right now (we are renting and am not sure the homeowner would approve nor am I sure I want to put that much time or energy into it when I don’t know how long we will be here). Thank you for any and all suggestions!

Answer 1

Unfortunately junipers as you have probably seen develop brown areas in the center of the plants. This is normally cause by the absence of light to the center of the plant. New growth in these areas will not develop because new buds do not develop on this so called old wood. When pruning a juniper sufficient green foliage needs to be left to hide this old wood or brown area. If you need to prune your junipers back to far the plant will not in most cases fill back in with new foliage keeping it green an nice looking as you are used to.
If the home owner removed the shrubs and replaced them with new landscaping, it would most likely increase property value! Maybe if you did the labor they would purchase plants!