Regional gardening

Energy efficient gardening tips for your region.
No matter where you live, we are looking to cut our heating and cooling cost. One place to look is in your own garden. Be it wind, sun,or snow, we all have different needs in all seasons. Here are a few tips that can help cut your energy costs.

Let's start in the northeast and midwest.
In the summer you want to help keep it cool, so plant your deciduous trees on the west and south sides of your home for shade. When the leaves are gone in the winter this allows the suns rays to help warm your home. Add a windbreak of shrubs or trees on the north and northwest to keep the winds from cooling your home in winter.

Moving to the plains and mountains in the west:
In the summer again we want deciduous trees for the shade in the hot sun on the sunny side of the house. Plant your windbreaks on the north and northwest sides, if you can, to help keep those high winds at bay. We want to use as much of the suns radiant heat as possible, so make sure your trees on the west and south are deciduous.

Pacific northwest:
You have lots of cloud cover in the winter, so again you will plant deciduous trees on the south, west and southwest sides of your home to make best use of the suns radiant heat. They will also cool your home in the summer months.

Southern California:
Plant windbreaks around your home to deflect the warm summer breezes and plant shade trees on the west and south sides to cool in the summer.

Southwest:
Summers are HOT, so again plant your shade trees on your sunniest sides of your home. Here it may need to be on the east, south and west sides, because it doesn't take too long for the sun to start it's heating early in the day. Also plant wind blocks to keep the warm winds off your home.

South:
A perfect place for some xeriscape gardening to keep the humidity down. So plant drought tolerent plants near your home. Plant evergreens trees on the south and west sides of your homes to help cool. Here you want some breezes, so plant your shrubs and fences to help direct them to your home to help cool it.