Philadelphia Weekly

REAL ESTATE

5 great options for shading your yard

Building permit, HOA approval may be required

By Inman News Feed

Add Comment | Comments: 0 | Posted Aug. 10, 2012

Shade trees

Let's not overlook the value of simply adding shade trees to your yard. Trees not only provide shade, but they're good for the environment, and you'll probably have some happy local birds as well. You can select evergreens that hold their foliage all year, or deciduous trees that leaf out in the spring and summer for shade but lose their leaves in the fall, so you still get winter sunlight into your house.

Planting trees offers several advantages. You have lots of different styles to choose from, including ones that flower and ones that come in different colors. Depending on your budget, you can get instant gratification by planting large, relatively mature trees, or smaller, less expensive trees that will grow up over time. You have a lot of options for placement, depending on exactly what you want to shade.

On the downside, they don't offer as much shade as a structure will, and you do have the leaves or needles to clean up. The installation shouldn't require any permits, but you may need HOA approval.

Remodeling and repair questions? Email Paul at paulbianchina@inman.com. All product reviews are based on the author's actual testing of free review samples provided by the manufacturers.