Preserving Large Trees in Front Yard

[Matthew Miller]

Hi all!

I found your site through a google search and have done some investigating but haven't seen real distinct answers to my question. My wife and I purchased a house last fall and have subsequently been trying to make it our own through various upgrades and projects. My current obsession is improving the front yard and curb appeal of our home. Here's a picture of how it looked when we moved in: http://i.imgur.com/Viwb2SA.jpg.

I'm in the process of ripping out the flower beds, updating them, and replanting them, but my biggest concern and project will be the yard and trees. Obviously I want to maintain the trees, so whatever I can do, I don't want to risk their health. I see a lot of "don't do anything but mulch within the drip line" but it sure seems like there's very little difference between the drip lines of these two trees and my entire front yard. Am I misunderstanding the term "drip line"?

I hired a CA last month to thin and trim the trees, so there is considerably more sunlight hitting the ground than before, but I'm still not seeing much grass growth.

From what I can tell I have two options:

1. Replant the yard with sod/seed. This would require some sort of tilling and therefore likely damaging of the root systems. These trees have incredibly shallow roots and I know they'd probably be negatively impacted by this. I really wanted to bring in a bunch of topsoil and raise the yard to grade it and not affect the roots, but this was quickly shot down by anyone with tree knowledge, telling me that covering the roots will hurt and possibly kill the tree. Okay then!
2. Establish planters around the trees with mulch and some smaller perennial type plants to protect/help the tree and prevent a dirt pit of a yard. Is this feasible without extending the planter to the true drip line of the tree and therefore encompassing the entire yard?

Thank you in advance for any help!! I live in the DFW area, which I believe is Zone 8B, if that makes a difference.

 

[sgreanbeans]

Go with the mulch, but use natural mulch, not the bag stuff at lowes or home depot.

 

[Raintree]

Hi Matt, welcome.

A few things, I'm not a turf guy, (I hate grass mulch everything) talking to a good one would be helpful.
Nice Oaks, they add to the prop. value. Thinning canopies for sunlight to lawn is only a temp. fix & not recommended. Elevating low limbs for sunlight under the tree is.
What to do to establish a lawn in front?
-Soil samples
-Air spade to elevate soil compaction & incorporate compost/amendments through out root zone.
-Install appropriate sized mulch rings around trees.
-Sow seed & water.

 

[HuskStihl]

I'm not an arborist, and also cannot get leaf detail from the picture, but it looks like the tree in the left side of the pic is a pin oak and the one on the right is a water oak. If that is correct, I have the exact same thing in my front yard. What we did was to plant a large circle of jasmine surrounding the two trees. 4 years later it looks good. That prolly won't be an option with u'r yard, but in our back hard we have a big live oak. Every year I put out some of the dense shade grass seed. After 4 years there is now decent cover. Your soil looks very compacted, which will impact everything. I basically did what raintree said, and it worked, but it takes time to get decent looking grass with dense shade

 

[treeseer]

You can avoid a dirt pit of a yard by planting groundcover that is compatible with those well-located and very valuable trees. Turfgrass is the least sustainable choice; there's a broad palette of attractive options.

Removing large lower limbs to temporarily help the grass would 1 make the trees more top-heavy and unstable, 2 rot the trunks.

Adding porous soil would not be a mortal sin. The existing soil is eroded by years of leaf removal. Deep aeration would also expand the rootzones.