The cut off branches won't grow back, fence or no fence, sorry! Maybe you can plant replacement GGs or some other fast growing trees/shrubs to hide the fence. Try to make it look like a deliberate 'feature', e.g. like wanting a fragrant lilac shrub or whatever you like, to heal the blow over time.

The GG privacy row will have to be sheared/trimmed (in the right way) every year once you start shearing/trimming it. It is possible to shear/trim one side of the GG privacy row and not the other side, the 2 sides will look completely different, formal vs natural. The formal sheared/trimmed side will require the subsequent annual shearing/trimming or it will look unkempt within a year. If you (or your neighbor) try to maintain such sheared/trimmed GG privacy row in longer time intervals, i.e. shear/trim beyond the green 'skin' into the brown then the green 'skin' won't grow back over the brown either. The average home owner will not be able to shear/trim a 25 foot tall GG privacy row, i.e. once you start shearing/trimming you need to spend the annual maintenance $.

25 years ago my former neighbor planted 3 Green Giants on his side 1 ft away from the property line. They are now 30ft high, would like to be 15 ft wide. I need to keep a path open to meters on my house, mow that lawn and prevent a Green Giant taking over a pendulous Alaska false cypress. I prune my side of the Green Giants to 4 ft half width every year. It can be done, I am using the clipper of a 16 ft pole saw I bought at Home Depot, soon need to climb on a step ladder, very carefully.

To others on this forum, always do not plant potentially future large conifers close to property lines. The poster has the right to prune Green Giants to the property line, is common law, see NOLO Neighbor Law. He will not kill the GGs by limbing up. GG can get a width of 1/2 its height.

Thanks for the response everyone.I will try and get a pic this weekend.One thing I want to clear up is I gave these green giants a decent amount of room.

We both live on rural lots, so a 8 inches of infringement vs privacy should be taken into consideration!! I'm not blocking his driveway or garage, and we are a good 30 feet away from any structure.I actually had the land surveyed today and the green giants limbs were 8 inches over the property line!! He clearly went 2 feet over to my property line and cut at the tree tree trunk!s! I just think the neighborly thing to do was to ask to trim the trees.

My response is to put the ugliest fence there is, directly on my property line so that is what they have to see every day!!!!My side of the green giants have not been cut, so I won't see to much of the fence I plan on installing.

I just wanted to know know if long term if this will effect the tree growth.I honestly don't want to do this, but I don't want to look at his garage.Will the fence hinder the growth?I would be willing to take the fence down in a few years if the trees grow back and they allow me to trim them properly!

Thanks again!!

They are tough trees. Your fence posts will interfere a bit with their roots but make sure to water well in any areas where there is damage from installation and they should be fine. The fence, once installed, will not interfere with the trees' growth, but the part that has been cut off will not grow back.

Not my business, but after 25 years of living in a rural area with a shared driveway, I believe that responding to perceived slights with more bad behavior only escalates an unpleasant situation. We have had our neighbors do some really odd things (topping the birch trees that they planted along our common property line, allowing dogs to run free and kill our chickens on our property, etc) and we try to sit down and talk to them or at the very least not allow ourselves to get excessively pissed off. He certainly should have spoken to you before he cut the trees, and he probably knows that, but was afraid you'd say 'no' (like a teenage kid who wants to borrow parents' car). Maybe go over with a couple of beers and sit and discuss the situation. He might end up paying for 1/2 the fence!

Your neighbor may have made an honest mistake, having seen the green grow upwardly so fast he erroneously assumed that the green would grow back downwardly just as fast to the ground (like many shrubs do)

On the other hand, you could start a second neighbor saga that like the previous one here flares up every now and then, teaching us all valuable life lessons :-)

Speaking of which my experience of this kind of thing is that there is an entitlement syndrome wherein it is believed whatever bothers neighbors about what you have going on authorizes them to come (or at least reach) onto your property to make changes.

As in to date I have had 4 different sets of neighbors cut, pull out or spray plants on my lot. Including ones I have bought and planted myself.

And always without my permission.

So based on this I would expect that your neighbor knew perfectly well that he was cutting your hedge on your property.