overgrown mugho pine
 

Hi,

I've got three awful looking mugho pines in front of the townhome
I bought two years ago. During a heavy snowstorm we had last year, several
of the branches on one side of the largest tree broke off.
The city came by and sliced off a bunch of the outside branches at the root.
This tree had grown to 12 feet high ! I noticed that
shoots are continueing to grow on the outside perimeter of the tree- will
they "fill-in" the spaces over time? The HOA had a arborist come out and he
staked the branches up into a very unnatural looking "bunch". The tree looks
very lopsided.

Is there any hope for these things? They are about 20 years old, and the
neighbors all
tell me how bad they look. I'm on the end, so they do give me lots of
privacy and shade for my patio, so ripping them out would be the
last resort. I was thinking about building a wrap around bench to
hide the branches that were chopped, and to add balance.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Mike