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Spring is here and it's time to clean up and landscape the yard. Planting flowers and shrubs close to your house will lower the air temperature near your house. Planting them now will improve your comfort and cut your air-conditioning costs later in the peak of the summer heat.
Make or buy some planters and put them on patios or any concrete area next to your house. These concrete areas become heat islands during the day with the sun shining on them. They hold this heat well into the evening. Select pants with heavy foliage both to shade the concrete and to give off moisture. This moisture can lower the temperature around them by 10 degrees.