But once you come to appreciate shade plants you discover they are a world unto their own.

WSJ: It's Better in the Shade

So the shade trees protecting the coffee plants became overgrown, stifling the plantation and causing a shade-loving fungus to damage half of his plants.

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Low cost improvements can include replacing incandescent lights with CFL or LED alternatives, master switches to make it easier to switch off appliances at night, energy monitoring to make it easier to identify waste, draft proofing, and using plants or shade-cloth to keep the summer sun off your home.

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The fig plants are used to provide shade in the atrium of the building, which MPs use to hold meetings with constituents and other visitors.

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Trees and plants also play an important role to help induce airflow and provide shade on hotter days in courtyards, and water is a common element because it can help cool the air through evaporation and can have a calming effect on the space.

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Yet unlike the vastly more common gardens designed for sun-loving plants daisies and irises and dahlias with their showy flowers shade gardens are a subtler thing.

WSJ: It's Better in the Shade

Reductions in sunlight reduce photosynthesis, but clouds and atmospheric particles scatter sunlight, meaning plants are then able to convert more of the available sunlight into growth because fewer leaves are in the shade.

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