Hi everyone,

Wanted to get some advice / real life examples from folks.

We planted 25 thuja green giants (combination of 5-6 footers and 7-8 footers) for screening and asked the contractor to help install them in a staggered row, 8 feet apart diagonally, also 6 feet from a wood fence (because the yard came with three green giants installed this way and it seemed reasonable per online search). However, our contractor was not very precise in the implementation. For instance, they installed a few of the trees 4.5 to 5 feet away from the fence, instead of 6 feet away, as well as installed some trees 5-7 feet apart diagonally instead of 8 feet apart. Another htey they did was not avoid planting near mature maple trees that was along the plant paht- one green giant was planted 2 feet from the maple tree trunk, and three others planted with in 3-4 feet of other maples.

I feel like I should at least ask them to replant the green giants by the maple trees. Also not sure if it's worth asking them to replant the trees that are 4.5 to 5 feet to the fence and 5-6 feet to each other (replanting will be an extra cost) if my goal is to have a thuja green giant hedge that requires very minimal pruning. Would be ok with some pruning while the trees are still young (in reachable height) for shape and fullness, but don't want to have to prune out of necessity every year to have to contain the green giants within a certain width (also not planning on trimming for height and just want to let it grow as tall as possible). Was wondering

1. Should I ask the contractors to replant the green giants closer than 6 foot to the fence to have a 6 foot distance (and would this avoid me having to eventually prune foliage back from the fence each year? I don't mind maybe pruning the bottom reachable part of the tree that's directly against the fence only maybe 10 years down the line (hopefully once every few years because growth rate slows down?) but just don't want to have to be obligated to prune every year in order to keep foliage away from the fence ( to prevent moisture damage to fence).

2. If green giants are planted 5-6 feet from each other diagonally, will I eventually have to prune between the trees in order to keep them healthy or is it ok to let them just touch and grow into each other and form a dense hedge and never have to prune between the trees (or do trees that are planted closer to each other naturally grow less wide?). Basically what I am trying to figure out is what would be the minimum spacing that these trees need to be from each other in order to not have to prune to manage width.

3. How far away should I plant the green giants from mature maple if I have them moved to have them grow healthy (slower growth is ok). Light is not an issue, as somehow there is a good amount of sunshine in the area to at least be classified as partial shade I think except for one tree under dappled shade.

I've been doing a lot of research online and different sources say different things so wanted to get advice from this group (especially if there are any real life case studies with green giant width/spacing with other thujas or large deciduous trees that folks can share). We are located in Armonk, NY (zone 7) and the area where we planted the green giants look like its a combination of mostly sun and partial sun with the exception of one tree under dappled shade.

Thanks everyone in advance!

Regards,

Am