pruning evergreen shrubs

We have several evergreen shrubs across the front of the house. They are full of dead, dry needles at the center, but the outer limbs (?) are green and lush.
They are growing over the walkway and I am wondering when and how to prune them back to open the walk. Thanks so much! Susan

It depends entirely on what the evergreen is, exactly. Please provide Genus species and cultivar name. At the very least do you know the common name? On most conifers browning of the interior needles is normal. On most conifers new growth doesn't break readily from old wood. If you prune back you will likely have dead stubs. If you don't know what conifer is it can you post a picture for identification?

With most conifers, you can't prune back into old brown wood as they won't sprout from old wood. Yews are an exception, they can be pruned back any amount and re-grow.

Resin

If they are foundation plants, they are most likely yews (Taxus). In that case, you're lucky. As Resin wrote, they can be pruned back any amount and re-grow. In fact, I've hacked HUGE, 6'-10' yews all the way back to under a foot, and by the end of the summer, they looked just like new. Post a photo so we can tell for sure what they are.

If they are junipers, some careful pruning can be done. (Junipers are rather prickly, but the yews have soft, dark green needles.)

Thank you all for your advice. I don't have a digital camera, so can't post a photo. My instincts tell me they are yews, and will try my pruning on the house side of the shrubs in case it doesn't work out. Assuming they are yews...when can I get the clippers out? Susan

Here's a photo of yew foliage and berries that can form on female plants.


Susan: If your shrubs are yews, one fine day this spring (as early as March), you can take the pruners or loppers and cut them back as far as you like, remembering that they need some room to grow out and fill in again to look nice. I would cut them back about a foot farther than the size I would like them to be when they grow out again.

Be sure to do this drastic pruning early in the spring, before new growth starts so the plants will put all their energy into establishing themselves again. When I've done this, I always fertilize the shrubs after pruning to give them a boost.

(I learned this when I was just a teenager back in the 60s. An uncle worked for a nursery and showed us how to do this to our huge 25+ year-old foundation yews one spring. Unfortunately, our neighbor was so impressed with the appearance of the shrubs three months later ... after laughing at my dad for the stubs we had after the treatment... that he cut back all of his overgrown shrubs- in August. Every one of them died.)

Check out the Fine Gardening website. They have a video series on trimming evergreens that is very informative. It shows when and where to cut on a variety of different evergreen trees and shrubs. It had it broken down to the various species. The current magazine also had a print article in it addressing the same thing. I would highly recommend taking a look at either one. I learned a bit and have been gardening for over a decade, and even worked in the trade for a bit.

Finegardening.com

Fine Gardening is an excellent magazine, and I second your opinion of their website!