"lloyd" wrote in message
...
I have a Yew tree at the end of my garden (lots of birds eating the
berries, could they be fieldfare's..sort of like a thrush but agang of
them?) anyway it's about 35ft tall, nice and bushy. But the branches
go all the way down the trunk and touch the floor. Some birds kept
getting caught by something (hawk) going by the way the feathers and
doiwn is spread. Never seen a Yet tree with branches to the ground
anyway and I'd like to trim them up about five foot up the trunk from
the ground. Question is does the tree grow from the top upwards, in
which case my five foot gap will always be there, or does it grow from
the ground up, so eventually my five foot gap will end up 50ft in the
air, if you get what I mean?

thanks

Yes, you can certainly trim away the lower branches without harming or
stunting the growth of the tree. However, unlike most conifers, yews will
respout from old wood, so you will need to trim regrowth back to the trunk
from time to time. As it happens, I'm doing the same thing with my Yew
tree, but allowing some regrowth on the trunk so it has a green, textured
'overcoat', which I believe will look nicer (and be more wildlife-friendly)
than a bare trunk.

Spider