Hi. We've been in our house a little over 2 years, and it has a large evergreen (douglas fir?) tree in the front corner, screening the corner of our front porch. It does a good job of that, but it's just way overgrown, width-wise. Trimming it won't work because: except for the outermost part of the branches (where the needles are), the branches are pretty ugly and bare. It's just kept growing and growing....it's got to be around 30 feet tall, and maybe 20 feet wide at its widest at the bottom. It's really up pretty tight on the porch now.
It's too big and we'd like to replace it with a more manageable evergreen. We've had a couple of estimates on removal from two arborists...each said it's a different type of tree. My question is, does anyone have any ideas on how we should proceed? Tips on best evergreens for wind/screening? It's the northwest corner of the house, and like I said, is the perfect place for a screening/privacy tree. That's why we want an evergreen. Do we need a landscape architect? Arborist? Or since the location is "tested" and good, maybe just have it removed....then go to a nursery and pick something else out....having them plant it? Thanks for any help.
Fr@nk