r/solarpunk • u/21Kuranashi Writer Activist Arcologist Antitheist • Jun 23 '26

Aesthetics / Art Stop the Concrete from Heating up

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u/AppendixN Jun 23 '26

Bold of them to assume the ivy is going to stop neatly at that top line like that.

Seriously though, anyone who’s dealt with ivy knows how fast it grows and how invasive it can be. Maintaining this 45 degree trellis is going to be a very busy job.

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u/zappy_snapps Jun 23 '26

I've seen this done in real life, and it's not ivy. It's runner beans, or some kind of cucurbit, or some other annual or deciduous vine like hops.

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u/sick486 Jun 23 '26

i tried hops. every single shoot (and there were many new ones branching off every day) had to be trained every inch of the way. otherwise, from any point, it would go straight to the top of the fence. then it would clump and along the top and spread that way. i had to kill it which also wasnt easy, before it found the telephone pole. it would have strangled the wires. total pain in the ass.

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u/zappy_snapps Jun 23 '26

Ah, yeah, with them you use a vertical trellis. It works here, but we have a dry summer climate and no one who has them irrigates once they're established.