Anyone who has seen a sidewalk damaged by tree roots can easily extrapolate the problem to a home's foundation. Anyone who has seen a boulder cracked in two by a tree's roots can see the potential for problems. The statement on Morton Arboretum's website that, "Though small roots may penetrate existing cracks in foundations, they are incapable of causing mechanical damage through their growth" is so absurd that it would be laughable if the results weren't so serious. Most of us here know that the problem with tree roots and foundations, as well as the problem with tree roots and pipes, is often exaggerated and frequently misunderstood. But, saying that the problems don't exist is simply and clearly denying reality. Oversimplification and dismissal of all but "average" conditions doesn't help address this issue! A few quotes (and this could continue for pages and pages) from ISA papers/articles: "In fact, tree roots can cause severe damage to sewer or septic lines, storm water drains, water supply lines, building foundations,sidewalks, streets, parking lots, curbs, walls and swimming pools, and each year the repair of this damage is a major cost to cities." "A typical application of cutoff walls is to exclude roots from soils near the foundations of buildings. This is necessary because root moisture absorption causes soil shrinking and differential settling, which causes significant structural damage to foundations and walls." "...during dry weather, trees must extract more and more moisture from greater and greater soil volumes to keep their physiological processes functioning. This can contribute to the drying and cracking of clay soil and thus to (soil) subsidence with resultant foundation damage."

Hi MT! Oh, gosh, thanks for the compliment that I "seem to know so much". I want you to know that I am rolling on the floor laughing because EVERYTHING I know I have learned the hard way by doing everything wrong and then having to educate myself to correct my errors!!!! Of course, experience is the best teacher, but it can be a painful (and expensive) one. Anyway, if we'd had an internet with something like Garden Web when I started gardening as a young adult in the 1970s, I think the learning experience would have been a lot less painful. LOL I'll try to come up with some suggestions for shade, but I don't have a lot of experience with shade, as we built our home in an old cow pasture in between two wooded areas, so I have almost all sun, except for the shade of the one large pecan tree in the front yard. I do have lovely natural wooded areas on some of our acreage, but the copperheads and rattlesnakes enjoy them more in the warm weather than I do. First, when you say you have shade, I don't know what kind of shade. Heavy shade? Dappled shade? Shade all day? Most of the day? For the sake of making a list of shade-loving shrubs, I'll assume you have fairly heavy shade all day long. Some good shrubs for shade are: Abelia grandiflora, aka Glossy Abelia: This is a graceful, arching, spreading shrub that will become about as wide as it is tall. It can grow in full sun to part shade, but I don't know if it will flower well if it is in heavy shade. The leaves are fairly small. It flowers in late spring to early summer, and the flowers are small, sort of tubular and white to pink. The old standard form gets about 6' tall and 6' wide. There are smaller dwarf varieties, like "Sherwoodii" and "Compacta" which eventually get about three feet tall. A taller one (3' to 5' when mature) that has really pretty purple flowers is "Edward Goucher". Abelia is considered semi-evergreen to evergreen. Oakleaf Hydrangea (Hyndrangea quercifolia). Different from most hydrangeas, this one has leaves shaped like an oak leaf. It will get about 6' tall and will eventually spread out that wide. It has lovely fall color, which is a bonus. It blooms in early summer. There are many cultivars in different sizes. It isn't truly evergreen, but its foliage and flowers will stay on the plant until mid-winter. Oregon Grape Holly (Mahonia aquifolium): One of my favorites for shade. It gets from 3 to 6 feet tall, and 3 to 4 or 5 feet wide. It has beautiful bluish-green evergreen foliage. It has lovely yellow blooms in the spring, and the berries are bluish-black. It is really prickly, so don't plant it too close to paths or play areas. English Boxwood (Buxus sempervirens) does better in our climate than Japanese (littleleaf) Boxwood. It is just your standard, compact green foundation shrub that has little pest and disease problems. Sometimes in very cold winter the foliage will turn brown, though, so that's a negative. It does need very well drained soil as it will drown and die if it sits in waterlogged soil for any length of time. There are many cultivars of English Boxwood available. Kerria aka Japanese Kerria (Kerri Japonica) is a lovely flowering shrub for shady sites. It prefers shady sites with rich, humusy soil. This is one of those shrubs that grows in an arching manner, so it needs room to spread out. You can't prune it tightly like you could Boxwood, for example. It blooms in spring and early summer. And it is prone to foliar dieases, so it needs good air circulation. It is deciduous. Possumhaw Holly (Ilex decidua). I have these everywhere on my property, from full sun to full shade. When mature they can get to be the size of a small tree...15 to 20 feet tall and spreading 5 to 10 or 15' wide. It is deciduous but has lovely berries that stay on the plant until mid- to late-winter. I think it will grow in any soil. There are many named cultivars. One of the prettiest is "Warren's Red" or "Warren Red". It has gorgeous red berries and lots of them. There are some dwarf and compact cultivars that stay much smaller. The birds love the berries. Southern Wax Myrtle (Myrica cerifera). Another of my faves. There is a standard version and a dwarf version, which is Myrica pussilla. Wax myrtles are in the same family as bayberry and the foliage has an attractive aroma sort of like bayberry. The standard wax myrtles can be pruned and limbed up like trees, which is how I treat mine, and the dwarf ones will top out at about five feet, while the standard ones can go to 15 or 20 feet. They are fairly fast-growing. The foliage is a light green that is almost a yellowish-green. I had to look for quite a while before I found some of them at a Lowe's, as they are not easy to find. Viburnum (Viburnum species) There are many cultivars available in many different sizes. Some are tall, some are short. Some are evergreen, some are deciduous. I have the common native Rusty Blackhaw Viburnum. Many named cultivars are available commecially. Spirea (Spiraea species) These are fairly compact shrubs, reaching from 2' to 6' in height and from 2' to 4' or 5' in width, depending on which cultivar you plant. They bloom in late spring and early summer, and most have flowers in various shade of white, pink or red. They are deciduous. I have them in a place where they get early morning direct sun, and then dappled shade at mid-day and full shade from mid-afternoon on. They are easy to grow. There are many, many cultivars available. Yaupon Holly (Ilex vomitoria) Many cultivars of this evergreen shrub are available in many sizes. They will grow in almost any soil, and in everything from full sun to almost total shade. Mine get some afternoon shade. They bloom in early spring, and the berries are lovely. Some of the common ones you'll see in stores are "Stokes" which is a dwarf and "Pride of Houston" which is a tall, upright version. I don't know of any dwarf red oaks, but Shumard Oak is among the prettier oaks with red fall color. If you have heavy shade and good soil, there are a lot of red-leaved dwarf Japanese maples. You can plant dwarf crape myrtle anytime now, I would think. Hope this info helps. Dawn

I'm not sure of what you mean, do you have a picture? Is it a grapevine bell?

Good point, forgot about that. Digging a hole to get 3.5 cubic yards of soil will not be a ton of fun but it does sound like probably my best option. It does mean that I will be taking clay from 2-3 feet down and moving it to the surface so growing medium wise I am not sure how happy the trees will be. I'm going to have to think on this a bit more.