[Cob] Good windbreak plants for close planting to cob wall?

[Brian Liloia]

I live in northeast Missouri in a completely cob house, and the west and
north walls are quite exposed to the wind. Unfortunately, I cannot plant any
ol' types of trees or shrubs at any ol' distance from the house, since I
live at Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage, and I can only really work within the
confines of my plot of land, which is quite small.

I hoped to get some insight into planting shrubs nearly butt up against the
north and west walls of the house. Has anyone planted shrubs right up
against their own cob walls? What types of shrubs would you recommend?
Obviously, they should be (very) shade-tolerant, and it would be nice it
they had some medicinal or edible qualities, but it's more important that
they actually serve as a formidable windbreak.

Any suggestions?

- ziggy (my house: http://small-scale.net/yearofmud)

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