Be cool, green and happy! - Nov 11, 2009
I think it’s funny that people will go to any length to park their car in the shade on a hot day. The shady spot is the most prized possession in the work car park too.
It’s commonsense that your car will be cooler if you park it in the shade. Why then do many of these same people refuse to plant any shade trees around their own houses.
Trees are one of the simple solutions to help prevent global warming but we find it almost impossible to sell trees at our nursery. We have a buy one get one free offer on a new release shade tree at the moment and the response has been under whelming.
In the older suburbs around Macarthur Jacarandas are in full bloom. These spectacular flowering trees can shade your house from the hot sun all summer and when winter arrives the leaves drop off allowing the sun to warm your house. The older generation used trees to cool their houses while today’s generation turns on the air-conditioned.
Perhaps Kevin Rudd should have paid for people to plant trees rather than providing free insulation. The suburbs would have looked greener, we all would have been much cooler and the birds would be happy too.
Tim Pickles is a CNP horticulturist and director of Tim’s Garden Centre 2 Queen St Campbelltown 46267022.