Dying Evergreen Trees

I currently have two evergreen trees in front of my house that are in brick planters. I've been really bad a watering them and they started looking very bad. I live in a very hot/dry state. Recently I've been better at watering, watering everyday or two trying to bring them back to life. I've also tried evergreen food sticks but things just seem to be so slow. I read somewhere that you should cut off the dead stuff so I decided to test is out and cut a chunk of dead stuff off and nothing is growing back in it's place, there is now a bald spot. Things are looking a little better (a little greener) then before since I've been watering more often but is there anything i can do to give them a boost? Also, should i have not cut the dead stuff off b/c it's been over a month and nothing is growing in the bald spot. Any info would be greatly appreciated! Tweet