I have a wall like that and I grew thunburgia on it this summer. It's in full
flower now and looks beautiful. It grows very rapidly, but doesn't attach
itself. I put in a trellis where I wanted it to grow. Other annual vines which
can be used effectively are hyacinth bean vine, morning glories, Ipomoea alba
(moonvine), cypress vine, Mina lobata.

I wouldn't put a vine which attaches itself to the mortar. That will indeed
cause problems and you won't get the advantage in winter of that warm wall. I
have seeds for hyacinth bean vine is you want. Do a search for the vines I
mentioned and see what you think. Maybe we will have seeds for you.

Victoria


On Mon, 17 Nov 2003 21:31:58 GMT, kevins_news
opined:

My backyard faces southwest and is quite long. Nothing around for
shade. Consequently, that southwest wall gets BAKED all day by the
sun. It is brick and manages to hold a whole lot of heat. Well into
the evening darkness you can still feel quite a lot of heat radiating
off it if you stand outside by it. I don't want to put in trees.

I'm trying to find a good way to cut down on this heatsink. Being
energy conscious I try to run the air conditioning as little as
possible. At the time the house was built I didn't think of asking to
have extra insulation put in (higher than whatever building code
specifices) but I wish I had. Now i'm looking for alternatives. I
could install one of those backyard house awnings that are easily
retractable but i don't want anything like that. My thoughts were
that if i had a nice layer of leafy vines all over that brick wall,
they'd be an extremely effective sun shield and do the trick.

Some people seem to say that vines are bad and can damage walls.
Others seem to love them. I'm really not sure.

I know that any vine solution will probably take 5 years or more
before they're thick and large enough to be effective but this house
is a long term plan so that doesn't matter. Is this a good idea? And
are there any particular plants i should be looking for? I don't even
know where i would start looking. I assume the nursery where i buy
tomato plants in the spring would be somewhere to look.

House built new in 2002.
Waterloo Ontario (Southern Ontario. Canada. Near Toronto)

Any thoughts appreciated

Kevin