The front of our house faces east-northeast, so in the summer the sun rises to blast our windows. They need protection.
We have interior drapes, but I’ve wondered if the house would stay cooler if we also had something outside to absorb the sunlight before it ever reached the window. I’ve considered awnings or exterior wood shutters, but they’re expensive and permanent. First, I’d like to see if I can’t make a living barrier work.
Last year I trained tomatoes to grow up strings in front of some of the windows:
The results were less than ideal, however. As you can see in the above photo, the foliage on the tomatoes was not dense enough, especially as it climbed higher, to make much of a shade difference. Also, the plants required constant effort to prune out side branches and twist up the strings.
So this year I’m trying green beans — and yellow and purple beans. They’re doing better. The official first day of summer is almost upon us, and the bean stalks continue to fill in. Thus far, they’re requiring less water than the tomatoes while providing more dense greenery.
From the inside of the house looking out, you already get the feeling of being surrounded by jungle.
Update: I’m finding that grapevines do an even better job than pole beans, as I wrote about in this post titled “Grapevine on eave to shade house.”
Cool!
Greg, I’m curious when you plant your green beans in our area. I haven’t done very well with them in the past, and I’m trying to get it right this year. I just read the post about how to direct sow seeds, which was really helpful.
Hi Jessica,
I struggle with green beans in the spring because they get munched by pill bugs and earwigs so I tend to delay sowing them until about May. But they actually grow well in the spring so if I get control of those bugs then spring into early summer is excellent green bean growing time.
For me, there’s a time in the middle of summer where they don’t do great because it’s too hot, and then they become very happy again in the early fall. Some of my best green beans have been harvested in October.
Thanks so much!! I tried some sluggo+ this year. Spinosad does kill bees, but in my understanding, they’re less likely to come into contact with the solid pellets than with a spray.
When I was a student, we used “scarlet runner beans” to cover a west-facing wall here in very hot Davis. They were beautiful and shaded very quickly.
As for pill bugs …
Have you tried taking a 1-gallon nursery pot, cutting off the bottom, and planting in that? That way the sprouts are never at ground level but they an still run their roots down deep. Maybe greasing the outside of the pot to discourage bugs from crawling up?
Thank you, Lois. I will try that.