Everyone enjoys sitting in the shade during a hot day, but they may not realize that maximizing their yard’s shade benefits their personal comfort and energy savings. Even the U.S. Department of Energy notes that adding outdoor shade allows homeowners to save energy. By working with a professional in backyard and front yard landscape design, you can produce an excellent landscape with plenty of shade and style.
Northern Virginia Landscaping is among the most experienced landscaping services in Middleburg, VA, and Northern Virginia. We perform all manner of landscape maintenance and construction projects, including softscape arrangement and hardscape construction. Additionally, we perform drainage installations and land grading to protect your property from erosion.
Here, we explain why you should add shade to your landscape and several expert tips:
Why Do You Need Shade In Your Landscape?
The reason we discuss having more shade in your landscape is that solar heat drives high energy bill costs during the summer. Your windows and roof absorb the sunlight’s heat, warming your house even if its air conditioning is on.
However, ample shade in your yard can reduce the amount of heat absorbed by your house. This takes stress off your HVAC system and saves you money on your energy bills.
Place Trees Around Your Landscape
To produce the most shade possible, you can strategically place trees around your landscape. While it could take some time before they grow enough to produce considerable shade, consider it a long-term investment. Not only will the right trees grow to provide you and your home a comfortable amount of shade, but they’ll also make your landscape look more interesting and protect it from erosion.
The best choices to shade your home with are deciduous trees with high, wide-spreading crowns. They produce the greatest amount of shade and fit well into Virginia’s yearly climate.
Plant Surrounding Shrubs and Hedges
While they won’t create as much shade as trees, planting various shrubs and hedges around your patio or near the perimeter of your house can provide a decent amount of cover from the sun and reduce heat radiation to the lower areas of your home.
These plants will also help reduce the amount of heat within your landscape by performing evapotranspiration, a process in which plants move around and release water vapor. This will cool down outdoor spaces by several degrees and make them more comfortable for you to enjoy throughout the spring and summer.
Build Vine Trellises For Coverage
While shrubs and hedges help cover and cool the lower areas of a home, what about the upper floor? An easy solution is to construct vine trellises around the walls of your house, particularly where the sun shines most throughout the day.
t several of them against your house, along with a vine plant that grows with a decent amount of coverage and you’ll have excellent shade around the upper story windows of your home, ensuring the upper floors remain cool. Not only that, but it will create a unique, verdant appearance to your house.
Northern Virginia Landscaping: Front Yard Landscaping in Middleburg, VA
Follow the tips above and you’ll easily increase the amount of shade in your yard, along with the benefits you get from it. Increasing the amount of shade through an eco-friendly front yard landscaping can easily be done by hiring a professional landscaping service like Northern Virginia Landscaping. Our seasoned professionals can perform a variety of services, including landscaping maintenance, drainage installations, outdoor lighting placement, and much more. Contact us at (703) 982-0100 to learn more and schedule a service with one of our highly-trained landscaping experts.
