Ducks4you 2021 Ragtag Thread

[baymule]

Old friends who could drop a limb on your head and make you dead!
Sorry, not feelin' it.

They shaded the house and kept the electric bill down to reasonable levels in the summer. We took down 4 oak trees just in out yard, next door took down 3 oak trees that threw shade on our yard too.

Now we are in a double wide mobile home and the afternoon sun beats on the back of the house, sure could use some shade! LOL

 

[ducks4you]

Actually, if you want more trees, look for cultivars that don't grow 30-90 ft tall. Other DD just had a 25 ft tree that was growing Over their house taken down. Previous owners had planted it and every storm was a nail biter.

 

[baymule]

We have a lot of trees here, all of them are tall. There aren't any with shade on the west side of the house and the afternoon sun is HOT!

 

[flowerbug]

We have a lot of trees here, all of them are tall. There aren't any with shade on the west side of the house and the afternoon sun is HOT!

maybe some poles and sturdy tarps up there with a gap between the tarp and the house so that the tarp will block the sun but that shades the house and the air gap lets a breeze through to take the heat away?

just spit balling here, but to me that makes sense and perhaps not that expensive and also best yet it won't grow and drop stuff on your house.

i've often thought of somehow rigging up a shell over the house here for the winter to cut down on wind and heating bills. too bad the ground water here is so high they can't be rigged up to go up and down with the push of a buttion, but perhaps screening of some kind on rollers could be rigged up that-a-ways. hmm...

 

[Rhodie Ranch]

Will (here I go again...can't remember the name of the tree - heading outside to study it....ok, looked at them, fondled their evergreen, straightened a branch - voila! remembered their name) arbor vitae grow in your area?

They are evergreen, fast growing, deer eat around the bottom of them (which is ok), and they can provide shade in a few years. I bought four of them on clearance at Wally's this past summer. $20 each. I'm using them to try to stem the wind that whips 'round the house/corner of the golf course. They were 5' tall when I bought them.



The green giant arborvitae is a large, vigorous, fast-growing evergreen—shooting up by as much as 3 feet per year until maturity. Its natural pyramidal to conical form boasts dense, rich green foliage that darkens or bronzes slightly in the winter.

 

[flowerbug]

Will (here I go again...can't remember the name of the tree - heading outside to study it....ok, looked at them, fondled their evergreen, straightened a branch - voila! remembered their name) arbor vitae grow in your area?

They are evergreen, fast growing, deer eat around the bottom of them (which is ok), and they can provide shade in a few years. I bought four of them on clearance at Wally's this past summer. $20 each. I'm using them to try to stem the wind that whips 'round the house/corner of the golf course. They were 5' tall when I bought them.



The green giant arborvitae is a large, vigorous, fast-growing evergreen—shooting up by as much as 3 feet per year until maturity. Its natural pyramidal to conical form boasts dense, rich green foliage that darkens or bronzes slightly in the winter.

otherwise known as cedar trees. they will like a lot of water. less water they may not grow as well, but perhaps there are some adapted to the more dry and further south areas.

here they are capable of growing in swamps and they will actually create their own mounds as they grow.

in the worst of the winters the deer will graze them and rabbits will eat the bark.

 

[Artichoke Lover]

otherwise known as cedar trees. they will like a lot of water. less water they may not grow as well, but perhaps there are some adapted to the more dry and further south areas.

here they are capable of growing in swamps and they will actually create their own mounds as they grow.

in the worst of the winters the deer will graze them and rabbits will eat the bark.

Deer will rub the bark off with their antlers too. Hunters around here look for scraped up cedars to tell where the deer are running.

 

[flowerbug]

i should have also mentioned that some cedars are not fast growing trees as we've had them. or at least certain varieties. we have a few at the end of the driveway that were planted very early on and they still would not provide shade for over the house even some 24+yrs later. they are about 25-30ft tall or so and about that around too. we also have a few which were planted at the same time that have been chewed on by deer so many times that they are 4ft tall and about a foot or two across. plenty of others that have gotten pretty tall now but not shading trees as much as they now provide wind-blocks and later day shade as the sun hits from the west. i'm going to have to trim some of them eventually as they are starting to cast too much shade on parts of the veggie gardens. the white pines are getting very tall, i wish they'd not have planted them, going to cost $ to take them down or take care of them when they fall down.

 

[Artichoke Lover]

elaeagnus bushes are a good option for a windbreak or privacy screen. They’re tough as nails and gain 3-4 feet in height a year. If you don’t trim them they get about 16-18 feet. We have them between us and the road.

 

[Zeedman]

i've often thought of somehow rigging up a shell over the house here for the winter to cut down on wind and heating bills. too bad the ground water here is so high they can't be rigged up to go up and down with the push of a buttion, but perhaps screening of some kind on rollers could be rigged up that-a-ways. hmm...

I've always wondered whether you could use vines to offer the same shade protection as large trees. Erect a trellis on the West wall, and build a framework suspended above the roof, maybe 2' above it. You could use grape vines on the trellis, and train ivy or some other hardy vine (trumpet vine?) onto the roof frame. That would give you protection from heat in Summer; and after the leaves fall, allow sun on the roof in Winter. It could be really attractive. Obviously the roof framework would have to be strong, and it might be necessary to hose off the leaves in Fall... but I'd really be curious to see if that concept would protect a home from excessive heat.