That's some pretty nasty turf. Eliminating that competition will have much more affect than anything else you do. I don't quite understand your concept, feeder roots are most active in the shallows of your soil. Nitrogen is probably the only nutrient your trees will visibly respond to and it is an entirely mobile nutrient. Just spread a few sheets of newspaper over the turf and cover with 2 or 3 inches of mulch creating 3-5 foot weed free cirlcles at base of your trees. Or you can carefully apply Roundup.

That's pretty cool, Carol. Did you have insect problems with the fruits? That's why I've never ventured into this territory. I was at the demonstration gardens at the Barnstable County Fair this week; they have a lot of blueberry plants which were loaded with berries. They've built a wood frame around the rows of bushes, and have chicken wire fencing on it to keep the birds out - it looked like a pretty good system, but of course it would not be quite right for a single tree.

Best bet would be to dig them up and store in winter in a cool but non freezing place to preserve the pstem (Must survive more than one season usually) for blooming if you dont have a warm greenhouse, or large room, but this does not work with all varieties, especially not the Cavendish types (stems die leaving corms), and your summers might be shorter than ours here in Oklahoma. Some types that store well this way with varying degrees of success are Orinoco (Does great), Dwarf Orinoco, Raja Puri, Dwarf Namwah, Musa Icecream. Saba stored well like this too, but I wont see fruit on it, it takes too long, and saba gets huge eventually and probably unmanageable for storage. Here is my tall Orinoco I have fruiting right now at ten feet of stem in zone 7a planted in the ground about April 15th (gets about 20 feet with leaves) that slept under my house bare root last winter at about 45/50F, with no roots, soil, leaves, light, water, etc. (Warning, Orinoco pstems can weigh 100+ pounds, pick a dwarf variety if you have a bad back) It takes about 3 weeks to resume growth in spring, plant the pstem a little deeper the next year to stabilize, and you have to take the time it takes to ripen in consideration for the type you are growing. You have to beat the first frost, and some types take a very long time to ripen, you wont always get fruit due to timing. Its been my experience that Viente Cohol does not overwinter very well indoors, dying back to pot level for me, and re sprouting, and you would need a pretty tall ceiling if you have a mature plant, and very big windows. But it is a short cycle banana, and can fruit and ripen very quickly if you can accommodate it, and worth a try. A banana pstem (visible false stem made of rolled up leaves, like straws inside of straws) will die after fruiting, but the corm/rhizome (The core of the plant) survives and puts up new pups/babies to replace the dead one. With this dig and store method, you get almost instant banana plant, and they look very impressive at about 20 feet (Including leaves) in a couple of months. After six months of storage under the house before planting again.

I also have an old grape vine. In the Fall I am going to build a better trellis with wood posts and an overhang. This vine sits outside our dining room window and unfortunately looks like a pile of weeds to most people. Originally my plan was to cut the vine way back to just the head and cordons. It looks like the previous owner trained the vine to have upper and lower cordons. Since the first photo there has been some growth, I was hoping to get to trimming before growth started. Should I cut the canes back to the cordons? Should I just let it grow for this season? It really looks like a mess right now.