Help keep your home cooler; grow your own shade

Shade: On a scorching summer day, it’s one of the most valuable assets for any home in the Sacramento region – and you can grow your own.

“It’s the difference between a livable summer and one that’s really stifling, not just uncomfortable but could threaten your life,”  says Stephanie Robinson, communications and marketing manager for the Sacramento Tree Foundation. “If you lost a big shade tree recently, you really noticed the difference – especially this summer. You don’t realize until it’s gone how valuable shade is.”

Not only your own home is affected, she adds. “Shade trees keep your whole neighborhood cooler.  Without trees, all that heat is absorbed by asphalt.”

Tree-lined streets lower the temperature of surrounding homes and improve the neighborhood’s quality of life, Robinson notes. “That’s why it’s one of the main priorities for our mission (at the foundation); plant more shade.”

SacTree volunteers tested their theories of shade tree impact on neighborhoods with a drive around Sacramento neighborhoods on a summer afternoon,  Robinson says. “There was a 20-degree difference between the hottest and the shadiest neighborhoods at afternoon peak highs. That can be the difference between life and death for people without air conditioning.”

Now is the time to plan ahead and plant some shade. Fall is the best tree-planting season in the greater Sacramento area. While some trees have reputations as water hogs (specifically coastal redwoods), many other water-wise choices are available.

“If you’re re-doing your landscape, think trees first,” says Robinson. “It’s not just shade, but wildlife habitat. You can build trees into your water budget. It costs less than $3 a month to water a mature tree. A young tree costs only pennies. You can afford to invest in that shade.”