When we bought our house a couple of years ago, the home inspection guy specifically noted that we would need to clear away all the foliage that had grown up around the air conditioning unit, so we trimmed everything back with at least a foot of clearance on each side--but it's in a particularly dense part of the shrub border that was already here, and I have to trim it back quite a bit, and it can be hard to get to in later summer. I might suggest doing something like one of those trellis things you can get to shield your garbage cans, and using vines to shield it. That way, maybe you can direct the growth up instead of out, where it would have to be whacked back every now and then.

my old trane HE XE 800 just went bust! the model number is
TTB742A100A0. How do I know how many btu's or tonnage this old baby was rated? thank you for your help. I am wanting to buy another Trane but need to know this first.

The trellis idea sounds great. Just make sure that air outflow is not obstructed.

Also make it difficult to get in and out. Melt copper has high value on the marketplace today...