Father’s Day and the first day of summer are quickly approaching. Take advantage of the opportunity to solve two needs with one item. A well placed tree on the sunny side of the house can greatly reduce the cost of air conditioning. There are mature trees that will give you that shade and when the leaves fall in October, that same leafless tree will allow the warm sun to help heat the home. There are tree choices for small areas where the space is limited. There are many smaller growing ones that can give you a choice of flowers in the spring, colorful berries that don’t fall off until the Robins clean it for you in February, and by variety be planted close to the house. For larger outdoor spaces, the choices are numerous with choices of ones that bloom and ones that just provide shade.

In the larger category there are also some varieties of Flowering Crab, River Birch, Canada Red Cherry, Flowering Pear, Red Fall Fiesta and many other Maple varieties. Because you can plant trees and shrubs all summer and fall, the timing couldn’t be better.

Now for that live gift for Dad. As you can see, I just barely covered trees that are available. Most garden centers have a planting service available so Dad is completely taken care of and his shovel can stay in the garage. A gift of a tree will be a gift that will increase in value each year and the memories are priceless. - Happy Father’s Day