jetgraphics wrote:
I would appreciate any suggestions, ideas, or criticisms of the idea of
using a trellis & wire system to support vines (climbing or drooping) to
shade a rooftop and house side walls in Zone 7 (hot & humid).

Would suspended planters for droopers also work?

Furthermore, if anyone has information on suitable candidates for an edible
sunshade, please post it.

Thank you.


Besides grapvines, you might consider pumpkins and squash. I grow
pumpkins in the rear of our garden and in the sideyard, next to the
house because it's that much less grass to cut. The pumpkins in the back
grow on a 9 foot tall pipe trellis every year because I grow other
plants on the same trellis under them - tomatoes and beans last year.
(The lower level of plants is not shaded much by the pumpkins because of
their much lower height and the East/West orientation of the trellis.)

I don't grow monster pumpkins, just smaller, cooking pumpkins, and the
fruit manages to hang quite nicely all on their own without falling off
and bashing innocent bystanders.

They give me a nice shady spot to boot when I "train" the vines to go up
and across right where I plant my own butt on my bench by using some
heavy cording. The only down side is removing the dead plants in the fall!

You might also want to consider hanging planters for both vining and
non-vining plants as more passive shading. That way you could have the
flexibility of extending the shaded period by planting cold-weather
plants in the early spring and fall.