Oldryder: If you want to grow vigorous, healthy maple trees you would not plant potted trees at all, but bareroot trees from a source like Musser Forests. For health and especially growth vigor, bareroot beats potted hands down. Bareroot trees are planted in the dormant season, either in very late fall or very early spring. That's the time to plant trees of any kind if you want good results. For that matter, you can plant any time during winter when the ground is not frozen, which would not be in the dead of winter in Minnesota. The problem with planting a potted tree now (or any other kind of tree) is not that it's too late in the year but that it's way too early. Setting out potted trees now, in the month of August, would place them under great stress, and I wouldn't bet on their survival. I am sure someone will come along to offer you encouragement on this idea, but it won't be me. Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

bizbu2000, you're going to have to unlearn the bad watering habit. If people in Phoenix only need to water once a week, then one inch, all at once, is all you should need for a week or more. Seriously! Put out some cans and time how long it takes to fill them. That day is day zero. Then watch the grass for signs of wilting. You can't know how deep your roots are at this point so watch the grass. Completely ignore how the soil feels. It can dry up all the way and the grass can remain nice and fresh looking for many more days. As soon as any part of the lawn looks wilted, water again for the same length of time you timed with the tuna cans. That time is going to be your guide from now on, so memorize it. My time is 8 hours. Your time will likely be less than that. Some people can fill the cans in 20 minutes in a high flow system. Anyway, go back and watch the grass again. It should go longer without wilting the next time and longer still the next time. When you water if you get runoff before the time is up, stop watering and allow the water to soak in for 30 minutes. Then resume watering. You might have to stop and start several times to get the full inch into the soil. If that happens, write back. Then you would be dealing with hard or hydrophobic soil which is a different issue. That lawn looks a heckofalot better than most lawns we see here. Once you get the watering right, and once Mother Nature stops helping you out, your weed pressure will subside considerably. Weed seed needs continual surface moisture to germinate. When you stop giving continual surface moisture to them, they stop germinating. Again, water only once a week in the heat of summer. As the temps cool down, back off to watering once every 2 weeks and then 3 and 4. And always water for your memorized time. If you get help from rain, then reset your calendar to day zero and watch it. If you got 3 inches of rain, the grass might go for a month not needing more water. If you got 1/4-inch of rain, you might need to supplement with 3/4-inches of your own.

Thanks, perhaps I'll just aerate and fertilize now, save the seeding for spring. I was thinking of spraying the charlie in a week or two after reading this: "Spraying is most effective for perennial weeds like Charlie in the fall. That's after nights have turned cool, but before hard frost sets in. At this period, perennials are shipping sugar down to their roots to store it up for spring growth, and the herbicide is most readily carried throughout the plant. Another factor that makes fall a good time for a concerted attack is that, even if you don't kill the plant, you may weaken it enough that winter will finish it off. Plants have a hard time surviving winter, and need to be in good shape to do it." Seems logical to me...

You'll hear multiple screams of protest about this suggestion, but under my silver maples (with notorious root systems), I have some beautiful stands of Aegopodium (Goutweed, Bishop's Weed). The foliage is a lovely green-and-white, flowers in early summer resemble Queen Anne's Lace; when it starts looking a little ratty in August, I literally mow it down, and lush new foliage returns for the rest of the season. Yes, you DO have to keep an eye on it because it likes to run, but mine has been growing atop that root system for 15 years now and timely editing has kept it in check. Other successes under maples: Liriope, Gallium odoratum (Sweet Woodruff), Epimedium, Stylophrum (Celadine Poppy), Vinca, Polystichum acrostichoides (Christmas Fern), Polygonatum. . .and in the shrub department, the "hands down" winner in my garden for beating root competition has to be Nandina ! Carl