Shading and evaporative cooling from trees can reduce the air temperature around your home. The energy-conserving landscape strategies you should use for your home depend on the type of climate in which you live. Orientation of the house and surrounding landscaping has a large effect on energy consumption. Fences, walls, other nearby buildings, and rows of trees or shrubs block or channel the wind. Bodies of water moderate temperature but increase humidity and produce glare.
Trees provide shade, windbreaks, and wind channels.
Pavement reflects or absorbs heat, depending on whether it is light or dark in color. Contact your county extension agents, public libraries, local nurseries, landscape architects, landscape contractors, and state and local energy offices for additional information on energy-efficient landscaping and regional plants and their maintenance requirements. See the contact list for places to get more information on landscaping for energy efficiency.