A SHADY area in the garden is a must for this time of the year and allows you to enjoy the fresh air.
It's great to enjoy any available breeze that can cool down an evening when it may be still hot inside buildings.
A pergola can also serve the same purpose.
Covered with deciduous vines, such as the ornamental grape or wisteria, a pergola allows the sunshine to filter in through the cooler weather while offering a canopy of protective leaves for the warmer months.
Shade trees need not be very large, as a bench seat, day bed, deck chair or sunlounge under the shade of a 4m tree can be very practical and a very relaxing way to spend a summer afternoon reading.
Some smaller trees for shade are the crepe myrtles, which vary in height from 4m to 6m, depending on the cultivar. These are hardy trees once established and are tolerant of dry periods.
They flower in summer, which is an added bonus, and many produce colorfully toned autumn foliage before becoming dormant during winter.
Crabapples are another good choice, with their showy pink blossoms in spring, and you may even choose a fruiting variety to make crabapple jelly from.
They, too, lose their leaves in autumn, allowing the winter sun to reach the ground.
There are many choices for larger gardens and you can't go past the jacaranda (right).
It would be hard to choose another plant so vivid and so blue in flowering and forming a beautiful canopy as a mature tree. Jacarandas can take many years to flower but the show is worth the wait.
Be cool, go native
THERE are also many native trees that make a suitable shade tree.
The bottlebrushes are a hardy group and there are many showy species, such as Callistemon viminalis and C. salignus that are worthy as a shade tree.
Other native plants to consider are the she-oaks, gums trees, wattles, paperbarks (melaleucas), lilly pillys and the brushbox (Lophostemon confertus).
The willow myrtle (Agonis flexuosa) is a tree native to southwest Western Australia and is quite tolerant of sandy soils, strong winds and salty winds. It has a lovely weeping habit as a mature tree with a leaf form that is finer than many of the related eucalypts.
White flowers adorn the branchlets in late spring to summer.
