First, I believe your "pine" is really a cedar (Cedrus species), as best as I can tell from the distance of the photo. And obviously landscaping under it in the traditional sense is not gonna work, which is why nothing grows there now - too large a tree with a too dense root system, lots of surface roots and too much shade. Bark or wood chips may be your best move, with perhaps a few partially imbedded landscape boulders to add interest. Keep the chip or bark mulch pretty light - too thick a layer can smother those roots - 2 inches is plenty and you can always touch up as necessary. With a tree this well-established and mature, you can skip the soakers as well.....that root system is able to access all the moisture the tree needs to survive all but the most prolonged droughts. You are going to have similar issues with the oaks - well-established trees with an aggressive root system. A good shade and drought tolerant groundcover may work (check local nurseries for what they'd recommend for your area), but be careful about too much cultivation under these trees - oaks in particular resent having their roots messed about with. You may decide to mulch directly under the canopies and place the GC at the dripline. With careful selection of a groundcover, it may creep back a bit under the trees on its own.

The leaves make excellent compost makings for the following summer. What Foghorn do is to bag up those shredded (hopefully) leaves in those ugly black plastic bags. They go into a pile out of sight. Foghorn also steal what leaves he can from the neighbors. He tip what he has't to, wrapp some, and hill with dirt, pine bark or other "on sale" mulch stuff. After everything has frozen nice and solid, Foghorn heap the bags on top of the buried canes and between and around the rose bushes. Foghorn rips those black bags off and untips the tipped EARLY in March otherwise Foghorn has one soggy disease ridden mess. Foghorn leaves the mulch and dirt in place in case of the usual visits from Mr. Frost. OK! This year Foghorn got burned by Mr. "Late" Frost. We have the polar winds here and only have a brief January thaw. Just trying to keep everything frozen is our goal. Foghorn think you may have a greater temp variation than we do here in the Mudwest. We keep the excess leaves piled into two bins made from wire fencing material. That might be the best. YMMV! Watch out for those soggy birds!

Hi pinkgator, Can you be more specific about where you live? Is it zone 9a or 9b? Makes a big difference to some of these plants. In your choices, astilbe is unlikely to do well as it needs more cold. Philodendron you have to look up the type individually for cold tolerance, but if you are 9b, there are many types that would work under your oaks. Leather ferns need a lot of moisture and would be unlikely to get that under oaks unless you sprinkle quite a bit or are able to water it with a hose regularly. Liriope are likely to do well. Caladiums are tricky. If you live in 9b, they have a decent chance of coming back each year. In 9a, I doubt it, but you could plant them as annual bulbs and they would be beautiful under oaks. I am in 9b/10a Sarasota, and I have loads of oaks. I have variegated ginger, understory palms (chinese fan palms, wallichias, arengas, cabada and several others), many types of philodendrons, bird's nest anthuriums, landscape begonias, white bird of paradise, firespikes, pentas, macho ferns, fishtail ferns, holly ferns, heliconias, cast iron plants for extremely dry, non-irrigated areas, beautyberry bushes, wild coffee, brunsfelsia, cycads (dioons, encephalartos, zamias, coonties), powderpuffs, crotons, acalyphas,shrimp plants, justicia golden flame, and many others I'm sure. The trick is to not disturb the roots when you plant, choose something that won't require much irrigation (live oaks can decline if they get pampered too much with water, thick mulch, added soil on top of roots), and add as little as possible in terms of additional soil or thick mulch. I love Meem's garden (Hoe and Shovel). In that photo you see variegated alpinia zerumbet (ginger), liriope, dianellas, landscape begonias (red and large round lily-pad types), holly ferns and saw palmettos. Browse her site and you'll get loads of ideas! Good luck and have fun. Anna

I'm afraid you can suffocate your tree if you add more than 2 or 3 inches a year of soil and etc. over the roots of your trees. Been there, done that, and I am still paying for it even after I removed most of the soil. Having said that I have a whole garden area under my oak tree including pathways. The soil should be in good shape because of all the leaves (that's if you left the leaves on the ground) that fall and decompose. I have planted all types of tropical plants and salvias under this tree. If all your trees are fairly close you may want to add a landscape design that includes, if you have it, some of your sunnier areas. This will be different from just putting circles around each tree. This may be a larger project then you may want to take on but it can be done a little at a time. The feeder roots of your oak tree are usually around 12" deep so I would stick with putting smaller starts of plants in, one gallon size or less. Stay away from the 3 gallon size. Good luck and remember if you are not happy with the way the plants look you can always change it.