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

[Peters Family (AKA sar, bridge, dylan, chris)]

Hi Brian,
What about Boston Ivy, (Parthenocissus tricuspidata ??) It adheres with suction caps on it's roots so it's not that destructive on masonry walls, deciduous for winter sun, native to US ? and the leaves are held vertical so water drops down to the ground. Being in the grape family there could be medical uses but I don't know of any.. Just a suggestion  It can be a bit weedy here in parts of Oz but no idea about where you are..
Seems a shame to cover a cob wall though.
cp



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)
>