**3.3 Directing wind**

Evergreen plants can be used in landscape designing to protect the cold winter winds. These plants can be used on the north, east & west sides of a building. Both evergreen trees and shrubs are used for continuous shading or to block heavy winds. Trees and shrubs with low crowns are used as an effective windbreak system that can block wind, close to the ground. Key locations, a well-designed landscape system & proper selection of plants help to reduce the total expenses for winter heating & summer cooling of a building. It can be reduced as much as twenty-five percent.

**Figure 6.**

*Shaded alleys under canopy cover. Source: Co-author.*

**Figure 7.** *Shading of west walls through landscaping. Source: Authors.*

Deciduous plants are the best shading devices. They can shed their leaves in response to the change in temperature.


The east, south-west & south-east sides of a building are usually considered as proper locations for deciduous plants. Deciduous plants may also cause more harm during winter than good in the summer if those plants are not carefully placed on the southern side of a building.
