In Your Garden with Jenny Watts

Enhance your Living Environment

with Shade Trees
Planting trees around your house creates a pleasant environment that invites you to spend
more time outdoors, especially during the hot weather days of summer and fall. If you plant a
tree where it will shade your home as it grows, you can greatly reduce the heat both inside and
around the building. For a small investment, you can greatly increase the value of your property.
Trees planted on the south side of the house should grow tall enough to shade the roof.
Summer sun is at a high angle and heats the roof much more than the south wall of the house.
Sycamores and maples both grow large enough to do the job. On the south side, be sure to plant
deciduous trees which will let the sun shine through in the winter.
Shading on the west side of the house can be very effective. Even if trees do not grow up
and over the house, shading the western wall through the long hot afternoons will greatly
improve the comfort indoors. Any medium-sized tree can do this job nicely.
Fruitless mulberry is a fast-growing shade tree, to 35 feet tall and wide. It can reach 20 feet
by 20 feet in five years. Its large leaves offer considerable shade.
Purple Robe locust is a very showy tree in the spring when its purplish-pink flowers hang
in long clusters like wisteria. It is fast-growing to 40 feet tall and well adapted to hot, dry areas.
Chinese pistache is one of the best trees for filtered shade. It grows 30 to 40 feet tall with a
round crown. The leaves turn brilliant orange and red in the fall. It takes heat, tolerates most
soils, and can be grown as a lawn tree or where it gets little summer water.
Autumn Fantasy maple is a beautiful, fast-growing tree to 50 feet tall and 40 feet wide. The
large leaves consistently show very good fall color, turning a bright red as the weather cools.
Other large maples include October Glory, which has beautiful reddish-purple fall color,
and Sun Valley, with reliable bright red fall leaves.
Sycamores are hard to beat when it comes to shade. These giant trees grow 40 to 80 feet
tall. They can take harsh conditions, drought and tough soils. The bark is attractive as it flakes
off leaving light-colored patches behind.
If you have plenty of room to spread out, there are few trees more beautiful than a large,
spreading Weeping Willow. It’s a tree to grow up with, to enrich your lives with great memories.
If you need a little smaller tree, look to the Chinese maples. These tough trees can be
planted closer to the house to provide shade for the front porch, or a sunny window. Two fine
hybrids are Norwegian Sunset and Pacific Sunset, both with glossy summer leaves and red-
yellow-orange fall color.
Fall is the best time to plant trees, so begin now to create a more pleasant environment
around your home with trees.