How to shade a south facing wall?

16 years ago

I'm getting ready to clean up a former construction staging area of my house, affectionately known as "The Alley," now that most of our remodeling is done. It's seven feet wide from my foundation to a six-foot-high block wall at the property line, and about 40 feet long. It's on the south side of the house, and I'd like to shade the wall of the house in the summer and also add more privacy than the block wall provides. I'm still going to need to walk around back there and move wheelbarrows, trash cans, and so on.

So, I need something at least as tall as my house (15 to 20 feet) that won't start spreading until it's taller than me (or that can be shaped that way if it won't do it by itself) and that can be planted fairly close to a block wall (say 2 to 3 feet) with out busting it apart with its roots. I'd rather have a closely planted row of trees with a narrow canopy. The good news is that my only concerns here are geometric, and any other features, like flowers, fragrance, wildlife attraction, etc., are bonuses.

People around here (Southern California/San Fernando Valley) seem to like those purple plum trees. I also thought about erecting a big trellis just in front of the block wall and training something up it, but I'm afraid it will look like a giant backstop. In case you can't guess, I'm new at this, but I've got time to educate myself and I'm willing to put in extra labor in order to make The Alley work.

Thanks,

Paul

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Comments (2)

Dibbit
16 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
With that width restriction, and with you wanting access through the "Alley", it's NOT going to be easy to plant trees. Since that's a property line, are you aware that any part of a tree with roots on your side of the line that extends over the line then belongs to your neighbor? He can cut it off at the property line and dispose of it - he just can't toss it back over the line to you. So it sounds as though your "shade" trees need to be tall, thickly leaved, and about four feet wide, and I am not sure that such a plant exists! I think you are looking at evergreen trees.

Just to list the requirements - you want to move wheelbarrows, etc., through the passage, which needs a minimum of 3' for a path next to the house wall. But you need to be able to walk freely, and not worry about bumping into the wall of the house, so let's make it 3'6" at a minimum, 4' if feeling generous, for the pathway. That leaves 3' or 3'6" for planting space. You can trim up the trunks of trees, removing the branches, to a height of 6-8', so you can walk under the limbs of the trees, and have only the trunks to contend with next to the path. However, for this to be done with regard to the health of the tree, the tree needs to be somewhere around 15' tall. If you aren't going to look for permission from your neighbor to annually go on his property and trim your trees, you are looking at very narrow, columnar trees, that will grow no more than 4-5' wide - the width of the planting space plus the width of the block wall. You might, if you planted the trees right at the edge of the pathway, get away with a 6' width. To fill a 40' length, you will need 8 trees, maybe 9. This project is NOT going to be cheap! And I am not familiar with trees that grow in a columnar fashion, so I can't make any recommendations for especially narrow ones - all the ones I can think of would be at least 10-12' wide.

I am not saying you can't do it, but I am saying it will NOT be easy. You might do better to plant a tree near the SW corner of the house, in the back yard - I am assuming there is one there? - and get shade from a tree that way, which would give partial shade to the "Alley".

To shade the entire wall, you might, indeed, do better with a large trellis, but put it up on the house, and not on the wall. If you position it a foot or so away from the wall of the house, you will get shade, and be able to have some air circulation there too. Your passageway then would run next to the block wall, and you would be able to make it 4-5' wide, not 3-4'. You could plant vines, both evergreen and perennial, and also trees like pyracantha, that lend themselves to espalliering. Roses might work, also. Any work that needed to be done, in terms of trimming back wayward shoots, tieing in to fill up the trellis, and trimming to keep windows clear, could be done, and cleaned up, from the passageway, so your neighbor wouldn't be involved. This might not give as much shade as you wanted, but would be MUCH more do-able.
katrina1
16 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
List of 3 possible options: They are reported to tollerate zones 2-8. I do not know if some of the cultivars do better at the high end of those zones and others at the lower end.

First consider the Thuja Occidentalis 'Smaragd' also known as 'Emerald' or Emerald green' grows fairly quickly to 12 feet high and 3 feet wide. This is a fairly new cultivar which I saw Lowe's selling, and which I got two 5 feet tall ones from a local nursery for about $45 each. Lowe's might offer them for less, I did not check.

Next, consider the Thuja Occidentalis 'Techny' also known as a 'Mission.' This tree has darkgreen foliage year round and slowly grows to 12' tall x 4 feet wide. I found some of them at the same local nursery where I purchased the 'Smaragds.' They said that the 5-6 feet tall B&B ones they had were about 10 years old, and they cost just over $120 each. The 2 to 3 feet tall potted ones they had cost almost $60 each.

Then also consider, the Thuja Occidetalis 'Pyramidalis' that is reported to grow 15 feet tall and 4 feet wide. I have not researched or seen this tree.
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How to shade a south facing wall?

Comments (2)

Dibbit

katrina1

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