Planting Strategies
Summary
Planting strategy places trees, shrubs, and groundcovers to shade, shelter, and screen a building and to fit the local climate and water supply. Placement distances, plant type, and water grouping decide the benefit, so they should be set during site planning, before utilities and foundations are fixed.
Cols
Selection
- Native and climate-adapted species: the base of an energy-saving planting scheme; they generally need less maintenance
- Hardiness zone and ecoregion: match cold tolerance and native plant communities; see the classification note
- Water grouping: group plants with similar water needs together
- Deciduous shade trees: block summer sun and admit winter sun after leaf drop
- Evergreens: used for year-round shielding in the South and for windbreaks
Detailing
- Layering: mix evergreen trees and shrubs in layers; taller trees farther out, shrubs and low perennials nearer the house
- Windbreaks: work best when plants branch to ground level; wider plantings perform better
- Distance from building: trees about 2 to 5 times mature height from the home is cited from Department of Energy guidance
- Wind reduction: the strongest reduction from a 20 ft evergreen windbreak falls roughly 80 to 120 ft downwind
- Large trees: keep away from foundations and utility lines
Coordination
- Rooftop solar: shade on panels cuts output sharply; check mature canopy against panel locations
- Air conditioning condensers: do not block airflow with plants
- Fire-prone sites: use the wildland-urban interface planting rules inside the defensible space zones
Sources
- Rutgers Cooperative Extension: energy-efficient landscaping, https://greenmanual.rutgers.edu/nr-energy-efficient-landscaping/
- University of Missouri Extension: windbreaks and landscaping for energy, https://extension.missouri.edu/publications/g6910
- Wikimedia Commons: 200530 057 SD Botanic Gdn - Native Plant Garden, Nolina nelsonii Blue Mexican Bear Grass.jpg, by cultivar413 (CC BY 2.0), https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:200530_057_SD_Botanic_Gdn_-_Native_Plant_Garden,_Nolina_nelsonii_Blue_Mexican_Bear_Grass.jpg