Landscaping can also help block and absorb the sun's energy to help decrease heat buildup in your home by providing shade and evaporative cooling. 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. When selectively placed around a house, they provide excellent protection from the summer sun but permit winter sunlight to reach and warm your house. Height, growth rate, branch spread and shape are all factors to consider in choosing a tree.
Vines provide shading and cooling.
Grown on trellises, vines can shade windows or the whole side of a house. 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.