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

[Thomas Choate]

Howdy ziggy, ! 
Coupla notes:
1.    its very possible that the shrubs (if planted super close to your house) will rub up against the house, and maybe bring moisture from the roof to the walls via the leaves. 
2.   It seems you didn't want to do a lime plaster...   if you have some really driving winds/snow etc,   lime is probably your best bet, next to building a porch on that side.  (a british cobber i met a couple months ago said that wales is chock FULL of crazy wind and rain (and snow)--- and the lime hold up just fine.    She said they let it cure for at least a month.  
3.   if you have the room, it may be good to alternative lower shrubs (rosemary, creeping juniper) with some small trees or taller shrubs, to really block out the wind.        Juniper is a medicinal,,   but its probably not what you had in mind  :-)         I know sassafras likes shade,  not sure if it likes missouri!?  
My first bet would be alternating juniper (shrub or tree...just prune if the tree varietal) with rosemary (hmm, maybe artichokes too..?).     (does it grow okay in Mo?)  
According tohttp://extension.missouri.edu/publications/DisplayPub.aspx?P=G6830y'all can also grow spirea and viburnums..    which we can do here in Austin.   They make both make really solid hedges...    viburnums a bit taller and shrublike...  spirea more flowing..and little more pretty.  
y'all can probably do myrtles--- which have a nice fragrance, and are herbals...although i don't know their properties.   They make nice hedges up to 5' or so.   (as long as you don't get the dwarf variety.  Some lavenders grow quite tall.   
I hope that helps!!
cayenne and piepans,thomas in Austin, tx


--- On Tue, 3/2/10, Brian Liloia <evacindustry at gmail.com> wrote:

From: Brian Liloia <evacindustry at gmail.com>
Subject: [Cob] Good windbreak plants for close planting to cob wall?
To: coblist at deatech.com
Date: Tuesday, March 2, 2010, 2:27 PM

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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I write at http://small-scale.net/stash
and this is the Year of Mud http://small-scale.net/yearofmud
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