Question
Hello

I just bought a new house in Northern Virigina and the previous owners planted a beautiful spruce tree in the front yard with a circle of boxwoods surrounding the tree about 4 feet from the trunk.  I'm sure when the tree was small this may of looked good but now that the tree is reaching 20+ feet tall the lower branches of the tree are not growing out straight and are entangled and fighting for space with the boxwoods.  I'm thinking of cutting down the boxwoods to give the tree more room but I wasn't sure if spruce tree will regenerate new growth on the bottom of the tree. For the most part the bottom of the branches look OK but there are some spots where you can tell it is not getting enough light or air.  Above the boxwoods the tree has a very nice shape.  Any thoughts or ideas?

Answer
The limbs that have green needles will produce more foliage but where the limb has died the tree will not produce another limb and this will be a blank space. You could prune the lower limbs off up the trunk until you have green limbs all the way around this would make the tree more uniform in shape at the bottom.