I believe with Global Warming that creating refuge from the sun should be a prime requisite for all gardeners and even home builders. Whenever I go to the Mediterranean or to Central America countries I am overwhelmed with the charm, color and beauty of the areas of shelter that prevail in the landscaping of the casas, villas and haciendas I visit.
The last time I was in Tuscany I was awed by the simple pergolas made by the local people from mountain oak or pine and how they created simple rustic shelters that not only gave them a wonderful respite from the sun but gave their colorful vines and climbing flowers a place in which to host themselves on.
You can do the same thing should you have a wooded area or forest area where you can secure some strong, tall timbers to create a rustic pergola or arbor. Just remember that when you put them into the ground you will have to encase the base of them with some sort of metal "shoes" or casing to keep your posts from rotting. I also suggest cementing them into the ground to prevent them from eventually listing or leaning from either wind or the plants that grow on them.
One of the things I sorely regret not doing when we built our pergolas and our big arbor was not putting plastic coated wire to each post with vine eyes. This would have allowed me to train some of my roses better.
Another thing I wish I did as my grapes vines were growing each season was to figure out how to get the grapes to hang through my arbor and pergola and not grow across the top of them. The grapes on the sides of the arbor and pergola are easy to harvest. However an abundance of them grow across the top on the top trellises and the birds get to feast on them faster than I can get to them. Perhaps the solution to this is to remove the top lattice next spring.
If you are a "scrounger" then the next time you are in a dump or a metal yard you might want to consider making your sun refuge from metal poles and even pieces of metal gates, fences, bed head boards and foot boards. Welded together they will make a strong support that can quickly be covered within two or three growing seasons with whatever you plant on it.
Choose what you want to plant to create the shade. Roses are nice, but you need good climbers that are antique roses that require little care. Wisterias is great but remember to keep it away from your house or any other building because it grows so fast and sends out its tendrils so quickly that it will easily take off your porch or get under your wood and start to pry it away. However, it will look lovely, exotic, giving off a wonderful fragrance as it tumbles from its overhead support if you can contain it on and in the area you want. Grapes will do well and any of these will grow quickly and by the third season you will have plenty of shade. Honeysuckle is a fast growing shade provider as is the Trumpet vine.
If you are going to create one of either of these great shade providers consider one outside your kitchen door or close by so you can put out a rustic dining table, benches or chairs. There is nothing more charming then sitting under the dappled shade with some good friends, food and a couple of bottles of wine.
Should you decide to create something think about taking a picture of it and sending it to me via email as a jpeg image as I would like to see what you created.
"Tread the Earth Lightly" and in the meantime… May your day be filled with…
Peace, Light and Love,
Author's note: This article was originally written for GreenThumbArticles.com
