k, thanks guys for the info. Can you place those breathable weed barriers with lotsa mulch on top of that close around plants like Pawpaws that sucker to stop the suckers from breaking through? Guess I could be persistent and just cut suckers off to maintain a better tree form but was just curious

utility line issues are more about you breaking an electric line and electrocuting yourself ... while trying to plant something or doing without the phone or the cable for weeks while they fix it ... with todays underground cable pulling... replacement isnt all that much of an issue ... other than the wait ... and roots just arent going after your cable.. gas .... or electric.. they have no use for such ... but the one utility you never want to plant trees near.. is the septic .... now there is water and some rich food ... and usually a way into it .... if you are on sewer ... the issue would be whether you have the old clay pipes that leak ..into which the roots can go .. or whether you have a newer sealed up PVC system ... which would be impervious to roots ... i also want to know if they are dwarf trees .... good luck ken

Speaking purely about clearances, if there is at least 5' (60") b/w the edge of the peninsula seating and the table edge, then you can probably fit stools there. As to whether you need stools with the table so close, that's a personal decision. While table seating is different than counter seating (table being more comfortable in general), sometimes both can be useful. We have two seats at our peninsula...with only 50" b/w the peninsula and table. I can tell you those 50" are not enough if someone is sitting at both. Even moving the table so the chandelier is off-center only gains us 5"...still not enough. Because of this issue, we don't use both seats at the same time. However, when we're not using the table, the peninsula is convenient for breakfast, homework, projects, etc....and it's nice to have seating there at those times. [Our mistake was not moving the chandelier when we took a few inches from the DR for the kitchen...if we had re-centered the chandelier, we could have placed the table so we had 60" between peninsula & table. Live and learn!]

IME having plants in a spot means that cats don't try to dig there, but I don't live in an area that has really high numbers of loose or feral cats. Perhaps after the holidays are over, you could cut branches from Christmas trees left by the curb and spread them anywhere there is bare soil. Another possible option - we also had a gizmo that was motion activated and battery operated that gave off an ultra sonic pitch that we set in places like the stove top where we didn't want our cat. Ours worked really well, and the cat soon habituated to not going in those places. Although ours was not weatherproof, when I just did a web search (ultrasonic cat repellent), I see they now make outdoor ones. This might make them find someone else's yard more appealing and get out of the habit of visiting yours. You could also try one of the sprays designed to discourage cats. It is an unpleasant aspect of having bare garden soil or mulch!