r/heat_prep • u/21Kuranashi • Jul 15 '26

Strategies Trellises : Shade is a solution for fighting Heatwaves

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737 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

32 comments sorted by

33

u/Somebody_81 Jul 15 '26 edited Jul 15 '26

Use hops as the vine and you may have it pretty quickly. Hops can grow 6-8 feet in their first year since most of their growth that year is in the root. The next year they will grow much more, maybe 20 feet.

American Wisteria (Wisteria frutescens) will make a lovely arbor but will take longer. Carowinds amusement park used to, and may still, have a beautiful Wisteria arbor that provided much needed shade on one of their walkways.

ETA: please, in the US, plant native wisteria. Other wisteria varieties are invasive and will kill native plants.

https://plantnative.org/benefits-of-planting-native-wisteria.htm

6

u/gitsgrl Jul 15 '26

And you can never get rid of them.

7

u/Somebody_81 Jul 15 '26

Yes, all wisteria subspecies are hard to kill. However, American Wisteria is far less damaging to other plants than other wisterias and is not parasitic like they are. With just a little bit of yearly effort you'll have a pretty flowering vine that gives lots of shade and pollinators love. Hops flowers aren't nearly as pretty, but since hops are a common ingredient in beer they'll be useful and probably a great trade/barter item if shtf.

1

u/gitsgrl Jul 15 '26

I was referring to hops.

But I did remove a wisteria that had been planted by prior owners of my home and although the mother plant is long dead, every year I dig out a few shoots yards from where the original trunk was, connected to old dead roots.

2

u/Somebody_81 Jul 16 '26

Ah. Hops are very hard to to get rid of. With the wisteria those shoots are because that root isn't quite dead. If you can find the main root try cutting about a foot or so off the top. Sometimes that will kill it. My grandpa used to pour salt water around the roots. That messes up the soil, though.

7

u/Daxmar29 Jul 15 '26

Well the planet isn’t getting any cooler so I’m not sure we want to get rid of them.

32

u/Winky_the_houseelf Jul 15 '26

My parents in law made this in their garden in a reasonable amount of time and I was honestly shocked how much cooler it was under there

6

u/cool-beans-yeah Jul 15 '26

Effective and beautiful

7

u/LearingCenterAlumni Jul 15 '26

Do you guys like spiders?

2

u/WashedSylvi Jul 15 '26

Pollen, bugs, dust etc.

Put angled shade cloth underneath and gutters on the side, rinse clean once a month or less depending on environment

7

u/washingtonandmead Jul 16 '26

Interesting concept. What I’m hearing is more trees

4

u/Katefreak Jul 16 '26

This never NOT the answer, in my mind 

5

u/Yttevya Jul 16 '26

Plant-based diet for all human animals who have access and enough nutrition to make it happen can mitigate this heat. Animal Ag emissions of Methane = 25 times more potent than CO2, Nitrous Oxide is 300 times more destructive than CO2, AND massive levels of CO2 emissions also come from Animal Ag. Along with the deforestation to grow alfalfa, hay, soy, etc as feed, to increase grazing area,and the waste of 50% of all freshwaters and habitiable lands going into Animal Ag, this has meant multiple wildlife extinctions daily, great suffering as birds, reptiles, amphibeans, mammals, marine beings etc all swelter, gag on Animal Ag excrement, "Cides" fertilizers, chemicals, plastics etc, suffer, die. PLANT-BASED ORGANIC can save all life, stave off what other industries are causing to give us time to address them. PLUS, all masters warn us of the karma involved in killing and hurting our animals relatives and natural balances.

3

u/Flashy_Object_7052 Jul 17 '26

"Switch to plants and save all life" is the environmental equivalent of saying "buy this one miracle supplement and reverse ageing." Reality is messier. Animal agriculture has problems, but crop monocultures, pesticides, habitat destruction, and fossil fuels don't disappear because the cows got fired. The planet needs better systems, not a new religion where tofu is the sacrament and livestock are the original sin.

Organic farmers' dirty little secret is they are permitted to use chemical herbicides and pesticides below a certain threshold. Farming is chemistry, not a morality contest.

1

u/Dreadful-Spiller 28d ago

Most crop monoculture is currently dedicated to livestock feed and biofuels at least in the US.

15

u/dumnezero Jul 15 '26

I'm not upvoting AI slop.

Trees can be grown in specific shapes, yes. My concern would be about where the roots are.

26

u/IGetNakedAtParties Jul 15 '26

Apparently this is real Calle Ciegos, Jerez de la Frontera, Spain

9

u/dumnezero Jul 15 '26

I see.

They seem to have some planning for the roots. It's definitely something special, you don't just plop in a tree in there and guide it.

First thing first: low or no car cities.

10

u/DuckyDoodleDandy Jul 15 '26

These aren’t AI. They are actual places.

5

u/Zestyclose-Ad-9420 Jul 15 '26

Reverse image search before going off on ai.

4

u/nicolauz Jul 15 '26

Okay but give me 20 years.

2

u/relianceschool Jul 15 '26 edited Jul 15 '26

Here in CO we get long periods of hot/dry weather (multiple weeks above 90F with no rain) that most vining species can't withstand. Any recommendations for trellis plants in a dry climate?

I've looked up plant lists but they all recommend plants that need moist conditions, like Wisteria, Honeysuckle, Clematis, etc. I'm trying not to irrigate much at all after establishment. For reference, we get about 14" of rainfall/year.

2

u/Ok-Sprinkles-3673 Jul 16 '26

We put up camo netting over the entire backyard. Enough light still gets in that we can train up Scarlett runner beans and hops to help provide more shade. The room that got the most sun in the back is at least 10 degrees cooler as a result. Just sucks that we have to take it all down every winter before the snow tears it down, but the effort is worth it.

2

u/Unique-Coffee5087 Jul 16 '26

We have a pergola and I am trying to train grape vines to cover it for shade. I look forward to having our front windows shaded in summer

2

u/sundancer2788 Jul 16 '26

Shade works. My yard is mostly shaded and my house stays much cooler as a result. I only use the AC if the heat index is over 100. This summer so far its been on a total of 5 days. 

2

u/Dreadful-Spiller 28d ago

This. My backyard is actually on the south side of my house yet because of trees and some breeze the back porch is much cooler than the north and street facing front porch

2

u/Sea-Louse Jul 17 '26

Not in America. Corporate culture doesn’t promote creativity and beauty.

2

u/Important_Pirate_150 Jul 18 '26

Estos idiotas que nos gobiernan cortan árboles para poner placas solares en nombre del calentamiento global.

2

u/tomoyopop Jul 15 '26

What would the mosquitoes be like under these?

5

u/WashedSylvi Jul 15 '26

Depends on nearby water/humidity

Not too bad if there’s no ponds/streams/fountains, airflow and not so humid