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Index : Plant Care
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- 22. Landscape Inside During Hot Weather - Top
- The oppressive heat of summer makes it difficult to go outside and garden for more than an hour or so, even in the early morning. So with that in mind, why not spend some cool time indoors planning fall improvements to your landscape.
There are never enough trees. Think about where you could add a tree or two to your landscape. The coming fall season is a great time to plant almost anything, including trees. For shading, the best location is to place a tree on the southwest corner of the house. Sun and heat are most intense from mid-day to late afternoon. Blocking the sun from the southwest provides maximum cooling benefits. Some of the best varieties of shade trees for Tucson include; Arizona ash, desert willow, sweet acacia, willow acacia, blue palo verde, and velvet mesquite.
Cooling shade can also come from shrubs. They are effective at blocking sun from the lower half of house walls, areas that trees can't shade. East and West facing walls should be planted with shrubs that have dense growth. South facing walls can also be shaded, although summer sun is so nearly overhead that it is mostly blocked from roof overhangs. Some great shrubs to consider include; dwarf oleander, desert cassia, Greek myrtle, blue Texas ranger, jojoba, and wolly butterfly bush.
If your stuck for space with a narrow side-yard you can choose plants to espalier along the house wall. Espalier is simply a method of growing plants nearly flat against a wall or fence. Shoots and branches growing out from the wall are just kept pruned off, while those growing down the wall are encouraged to grow. Some of the best shrubs to espalier include; pyracantha, photinia, podocarpus, and Japanese privet.
Trees that work well in narrow spaces include; shoestring acacia, Japanese yew, and willow pittosporum. Palms can throw out a surprisingly large amount of shade. Although they grow to be tall, they can provide shading for the roof. A good choice would be the desert fan palm because of it's rapid growth rate. Groupings of palms work best for providing larger areas of shade.
Another prime spot for trees and shrubs to shade is the compressor on your air conditioner. Plants used to shade will take a lode off the air conditioning and save you money. Be sure to keep plants back and away from the unit for three feet, so as not to disturb the air flow through the unit.
The more plants in your yard, the more cooling effect you can obtain. Shading of the ground around the home helps keep temperatures down. This is especially true if your landscape is mulched with rock. Rock heats up in the sun and releases the heat very slowly, keeping the area around your home hotter at night. Shading the rock will prevent it from heating up.
Plants also have a natural cooling mechanism called transpiration. It's the same basic principle as that used in our evaporative coolers at home. Water is taken in by plant roots and expelled through pores in the leaves. The evaporation of this water causes a cooling effect not only of the plant, but also the surrounding air. Thus the more plants, the cooler the environment around your home! Lawns provide a great cooling effect, but if you don't want the higher water use consider desert adapted ground covers. They are great for shading the soil and providing evaporative cooling. Some that I would recommend include; trailing lantana, verbena, ground morning glory, trailing rosemary, calylophus, and trailing indigo bush.
Finally, remember that given the proper care, plants grow rapidly, especially shrubs and ground covers. If you buy smaller plants you can purchase more of them for greater shading, cooling and visual impact.
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Written by John Begeman, College of Agriculture, the University of Arizona, 520-626-5161.
Material originally appeared in Arizona Daily Star gardening column, on August 13, 2000
- Updated: April 19, 2001
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