So I recently purchased my first home. I have a line of cedars that will eventually act like a fence. I was getting rid of the weeds that were around the cedars. The person before me had black soil and some mulch along the line of cedars. Now as I was removing the weeds I noticed that black ants were everywhere. There are a couple of cedars that are obviously dead. They have no groth on them and the branchs are dry and easy to snap off. So my questions are 1. Do the black ants have any negative effect on the cedars? 2. Should I remove the dead cedars? I was going to wait until the other cedars got bigger and then get rid of the dead cedars so that this way there are no big holes between the cedars. 3. Does anyone have a link on how to prune/shape the cedars with a hedge trimmer or something similar. Thanks in advance :)
1. The ants are harmless and they are aerating the soil. 2. The dead cedars shouldn't hurt anything unless they are planted too closely to the live ones. 3. http://www.gardenline.usask.ca/trees/cedars.html --Hope that helps