By Gayle70
United Kingdom 
I have roughly 50 feet in length by 10 feet in height conifers in my garden. Quite a few of them have gone very brown, brittle and dry looking. I live in Scotland so we don't lack in rain. Can you give me a reason as to why this would happen and how I can save them please. Last year I did put down black membrane and chuckies to stop the weeds coming through. Have I starved them of water?
4 Jul, 2012
Answers
Hi Gayle and welcome to GoY. The weed membrane and chuckies will certainly have prevented a lot of the water reaching your conifers roots. If they are brown and brittle it is unlikely you will be able to save them as conifers do not regrow from brown wood.
5 Jul, 2012
Could it also be the disease that seems to be hitting a lot of conifers recently?
5 Jul, 2012
Possibly Steragram, hard to know...
6 Jul, 2012
Here's a link to the RHS website that looks at this issue in detail: http://apps.rhs.org.uk/advicesearch/profile.aspx?pid=132
5 Jul, 2012