You can’t air condition the outdoors—but you can lower the temperature with some thoughtful landscaping decisions. If you hesitate to throw a cookout in your outdoor space because you feel like you’re on a grill when you’re out there, consider implementing some of these simple suggestions for how your landscaping is designed.
Concentrate on deciduous trees (trees that lose their leaves annually), as these will shade your yard and house in the summer but let the warming sun through in the winter. Fast-growing choices include sycamores, which have varieties that thrive in a wide range of climates, as well as maple, oak, and honey locust trees.
Ditch hardscapes
For the hardscaping you want or need to keep, consider using a lighter color scheme, as lighter colors reflect more heat. When installing pavers or other hardscape materials, check the light reflectance value (LRV), which is a measurement of how much light the color reflects. The higher the number, the cooler the surface will be—an LRV above 50 percent is a good starting point.
You can lower the temperature of the ground or hard surfaces by planting ground cover plants like creeping thyme or vinca. These low-growing plants will spread out and block the sun, lowering the overall temperature of the area and avoiding surfaces that are like skillets against your feet. You can also use a reflective mulch in your plant beds; these include aluminum or other reflective materials to bounce the sun’s light away from the ground, resulting in a small but appreciable decrease in temperature.
Use layers
While tree canopies can keep the sun off your outdoor space when it’s high in the sky, when it starts to sink those punishing rays can still bake your space. Vines and other climbing plants can provide shade horizontally, creeping up fences, trellises, or other vertical surfaces and blocking the sunlight while allowing air movement. Just don’t let them grow on your house—that can lead to serious damage.
Channel the air
On the other hand, if your outdoor space is baked by hot winds, you can plant shrubs or trees to block those winds. Even tall grasses can be effective windbreaks, absorbing and breaking up oven-like breezes before they invade your patio area.
Add water features
You can also add water features like fountains or ponds to help with the temperature of an outdoor space—especially when used in conjunction with layered plantings of trees, shrubs, and grasses. The impact of a small water feature might not be huge, but every little bit will help, and water features also bring beauty and a sense of tranquility to any space—which might make the heat more tolerable.
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