Possible, but a lot of hard work! To keep it neat, you'd need to shear 2-3 times per year. A slower-growing selection such as Thuja occidentalis would only need one trim a year to stay tidy.

Resin

Thuja 'Holmstrup' is a beauty and grows 6" per year. The spacing would be different.

Dax

I forgot to mention that I was thinking of Green Giant because I have deer and heard that it is the only thuja that is deer resistant - duh, my bad! Any other suggestions?

It isn't deer resistant!

What can I use that is? Any junipers? It's a weird configuration of semi circles. The wife wants taller - 8-10' in the middle and gradually working down on either side to about 3'! It has to be evergreen, lots of sun and wind in the winter and most of all deer resistant. Any junipers? We're in zone 6 and I sure don't want to be shearing 2 or 3 times a year!

Nothing is 100% deer resistant (well, maybe concrete blocks!), but juniper is better (less palatable) than most, they'll usually only eat it if there's nothing else available.

Resin

One caution--there is a different species of deer in the UK. Here in VA I see no, absolutely no, nibbling on my Green Giants. And there are hoards of deer here eating almost everything. In the Western MD mountains there are even more deer and they are on to their "starvation" foods, but my Thuja occidentalis are untouched. But I can't be sure my Thujas will not be buck rubbed.

--Spruce

Hi Spruce - several people from your side of the Pond have reported here on having their GGs stripped by hungry deer.

Resin

Resin:

A good project for someone over here would be to do a map showing which plants get deer browsed where. So many people are concerned about whether they should plant this or that kind of plant, and all they get is contradictory informatiion.

I have seen differences in what deer will eat in different places, but in all the cases I can report on, the differences seem--and I say "seem" to show some note of caution, although I am fairly sure--to be related to population pressures and the availability of more prefered browse. At my timberland in the mountains of western MD I have observed the effects of greatly increasing populations of deer for the past 37 years. Things they wouldn't touch 30 years ago are now eaten to extinction. But still their distaste for the Thuja occidentalis is absolute. Here near Winchester, VA the population pressures are a bit less, but the availability of preferred browse is also low, so they are nibbling a lot of plants that are not their favorites. As yet, admittedly after just three years, there has not yet been one single nibble on my green giants. I think anyone around here, or in Western MD could plant these without any worry whatsoever. Could the tastes of these deer later include these Thujas--well, maybe, but I doubt it.

Maybe this forum doesn't have enough members to begin collecting some information about what is eaten where, but it sure would be useful if someone would figure out a way to collect the data and prepare some maps, preferably with some information about deer populations in each area. Some people who love gardening and trees and shrubs are driven to distraction by these deer, and the situation is made worse, given that we have these huge numbers of deer that the wildlife authorities will do nothing about, because they can't get any consistent and reliable information about what they can plant and grow.

--Spruce