A newly planted shade tree is not unlike a newborn baby. The proud papa or mama thinks, “How wonderful!” But ­there’s this, too: “I wish someone had told me how much I would worry!”

Is my tree healthy? Does it need to be watered? Pruned? Staked? Mulched? If only this darn tree could talk!

Please join me in congratulating, thanking, and sympathizing with these new “shade tree parents.”

At the bottom of Hale Street, Boon Boonyapat’s maple will eventually shade his corner of the intersection. Next door, Ashley Perko and Will Pickeral’s blackgum will rival Boon’s maple for fall color. Up on Ashland, Martha Staid and Andrew Stein’s beech will outlive us all by at least a century. On Dixie, the residents of the Gatsby have not one, not two, but three newly planted cypresses to nurture. Meanwhile, the civic-minded folks at Inman Park Townhomes are providing a home for a pair of oaks, sisters to an oak in Anandi Sheth and Chandan Devireddy’s front yard on Spruce. The Schoolhouse Lofts on Edgewood, led by Emily Taylor and Christel Craig, will be raising two oaks. Bobbie and Rod Paul, on Elizabeth, welcomed a new maple into their backyard, outdone only by the two maples behind Jill and Alan Travis’s home on Sinclair!

I wish I could tell you exactly how much cooler Inman Park will be because of these 14 new shade trees, how much cleaner the air, how much less runoff, how much lower our energy use, how many more animals will have homes and food, and how much higher our property values will be. What I can tell you is that these new trees will undoubtedly improve our physical, mental, and social well-being. Tree Watch will be planting again next winter. Let us know if you’d like to adopt a shade tree!