The Owner Built Home & Homestead
(Page 15 of 23)
Rudolf Geiger is one of the earliest climatologists to
indicate what direction this "new" planting-design might
take. His excellent study on the microclimate also
indicates procedure and method for achieving this new
garden form. He found, for instance, that a mixed forest
growth of spruce, poplar and oak effectively cuts off from
the ground 70% of the sun's heat. Forests are cooler than
cleared land in summer, and warmer than cleared land in
winter. Nature keeps the ground covered with vegetation.
With this heat-absorbing surface, heat previously held by
the soil is transferred to the top layer of plant foliage.
This layer-to-layer transfer and exchange from a dead to a
living thermal-absorbing surface provides definite
summer-cooling and winter-warming effects. An evergreen
windbreak is also effective in reducing heat loss from
buildings—by keeping the cold winds out of contact
with building surfaces. Drifting snow is discouraged by
well-planned evergreen hedges.
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The more significant function of natural vegetation is
demonstrated in summer time. No doubt everyone is aware of
the important summer-shading effect of trees (although the
barren tract-developments sometimes leave one to wonder how
this most basic of all climate-control features could be
missed by so many builders). But even a good understanding
of how the deciduous tree provides generous shade at
exactly the appropriate summer season—and then loses
its leaves toward autumn so the sun can easily penetrate
through the leafless branches during winter—is really
not enough information to assist the amateur home-builder
in his selection and placement of trees. Climate-control
experts employ a Heliodon—an accurate, simulated sun
machine—to determine the exact, most desirable
position of vegetation around buildings. The Olgyay
brothers, professors of architecture at Princeton
University, have published more vital information on this
subject than the rest of the climate-control research
agencies combined.
The shape and character of the shade tree will determine
the extent and shape of its shadow. The variety chosen
should therefore depend upon the shape of the area to be
shaded. For instance, the maple and ash produce circular
shadows, with an ascending branch pattern in winter. Honey
locust and tulip trees have oblong shapes. The white oak is
wide and horizontally oblong, with an open-branched
structure. The Lombardy poplar is columnar and the American
elm is vase-shaped in appearance. Other trees especially
recommended for shade purposes are; weeping willow, Russian
olive, flowering dogwood, sweet gum, American beech, maple,
white birch, and Siberian crab apple.
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