The good juice on deciduous vines
Autumn glory at Jenny’s place
We are big fans of deciduous vines. In summer, they provide fantastic lush, green shade and act like nature’s evaporative cooler by bringing deliciously cool air into your home. In autumn, they offer the most stunning array of colours before they lose their leaves. Then in winter they allow free heat from the sun to flood into your home.
While they do take a little while to get going, and there is some maintenance involved in getting them functioning and looking their best, they are a very cost-effective external shading option. Plants also provide biodiversity benefits, reduce the heat island effect and make you FEEL good. Looking at greenery is good for you.
To show you an example, here is the progress of the deciduous vines on Jenny’s north-facing deck over the last 3.5 years. As you will see Zac, the solar passive dog, is also a big fan of the vines and the benefits they offer all year round.
These ornamental grape vines were planted in May 2017 and the first two photos show growth in their first summer. The following summer the vines are making their way over the pergola and starting to provide that ever important shade.
Then came the glorious colours of autumn and their first hard prune in July after the leaves had fallen.
Even in a very tough, hot, dry year, the grapevines soldiered on. They survived the smoky summer of 2019/20 and only copped small hail during Canberra’s supercell thunderstorm. Jenny and David weren’t able to sit out directly beneath them as much that summer due to the terrible air quality but, even from inside, they provide a cooling and calming effect.
August saw deciduous vine pruning day at Jenny’s place (6 weeks later than last year).
To keep deciduous vines from taking over the joint and eventually blocking your precious passive solar gain in winter with their thick, gnarly, intertwined, woody stems... you have to prune them hard and have a plan for where you want them to grow.
Jenny spent a fair bit of time up the ladder to get things looking neat and ready to shoot like mad over the next few months.
And with the aid of a wet spring, shoot like mad they did! During summer the vines covered the pergola and provided full, lush, cool shade to the front deck and into the home - 3.5 years after planting.
And now here we are in autumn again, admiring the best of Canberra’s blue skies and autumn reds. As winter gets closer, more and more of the stunning autumn sky is revealed and more and more glorious sunshine pours onto the deck and into the house.
From a peak angle of 78 degrees at summer solstice to a low of 31 degrees at winter solstice here in Canberra (and with so many clear sky days), the sun is your friend IF you factor it into your design from the very start. Science, it’s good stuff. Combined with architecture, it’s amazing.
Very soon... Jenny will need to prune!
