A Little Planning Goes a Long Ways
An energy-smart landscape begins with careful planning. A simple layout and some research produce a landscape that adds value to your property, reduces energy costs and supports wildlife.

Did you know?
If you correctly place shade trees, shrubs and vines, you can reduce your heating and cooling costs by an estimated 25-30 percent, with some estimates as high as 50 percent.

Follow these simple landscaping tips to create your energy-friendly forest:

• Plant shade trees due west of west-facing windows.
• Select trees that can be planted within 20 feet of the window and will grow at least 10 feet taller than the window.
• Don't plant trees to the south of south-facing windows. They don't block the summer sun but do block it in winter when it is most beneficial.
• Create windbreaks to block harsh winter winds, but allow cool summer breezes to flow through. Tall trees like maple, oak, pine and spruce provide summer shade and keep out cold winter winds.
• Shade east and west windows in the summer, where most solar energy enters your building.
• Don't shade south windows in winter, where most solar energy enters your building.
• Plant shrubs next to your home for insulation. Choose shrubs that mature to one foot of space between the plants and your building.
• Plant vines to absorb the sun's heat and shade the wall's surface and reduce the amount of wind hitting the outer walls in the winter.
• If you have to plant a tree beneath power lines, choose medium trees like cherry, honey locust, horse-chestnut and mountain ash or smaller trees like gray dogwood, hawthorn, nannyberry and techny arbor vitae. Consider a 25-foot maximum mature height and a 20-foot spread.

TREE TIP: For the greatest benefit, a shade tree should have a broad crown of dense foliage during the hottest times of the year. A mature deciduous tree blocks between 60 to 90 percent of the sun in summer months. The tree should lose its leaves just as the thermostat kicks on the furnace in the fall, and in winter its branches should be sparse.

This information is from the Minnesota Department of Commerce Energy Guide entitled "Save Energy with Trees"
To visit their website Click Here.

How to Plant a Tree

Select the right tree for the site.

• Call Gopher State One Call at 1-800-252-1166 to mark underground utilities.
• Till soil 8-10" deep and two to three times wider than the root ball.
• Dig a hole 1' larger than the root ball and no deeper than the root ball height.
• Place tree on compacted soil with trunk flare 1" above soil surface.
• Remove wire, burlap and container from sides of root ball.
• Backfill hole with soil, no deeper than existing soil on root ball.
• Mulch 4" deep with woodchips.
• Water after planting about 1" a week depending on soil.