A little sad.

Our house faces west.  The sun bakes it all afternoon. In the winter that's kind of nice, it cuts down on the heating bill a bit.  In the summer, however, our air conditioner struggles to keep up sometimes.  We'd only lived here a year or so when we planted a couple trees in the middle of our front yard in the hopes that they would grow provide some shade to our house.  We do have a large quaky in the front that provides a lot of shade.  For our neighbors.  And sends up little shoots throughout our lawn.  Sigh.  We planted 2 different kinds of maple.  We had to replace one a few years back when we had a severe freeze in November after a mild fall season.  The tree and several of our rosebushes never recovered.  This year, by the end of summer, both the trees were dead.  There was barely any green on them when we cut into them to see if there was any hope.  We're a little sad that they didn't last more than a few years.  Daddy went out and dug them up.  Fortunately, little brother was on hand to help out.  In the spring we'll plant again - something that can handle our terrible soil better. We were told these maples would do great, but they were struggling by August every year.  We may just stick with another flowering pear like we have in the park strip.