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.

Lamenting the need to get rid of a good looking plant doesn't equal a suggestion to keep it. The Ficus could be hard-trimmed ruthlessly, but a human would resent that a plant had turned them into a slave ... when it's supposed to be the other way around. I agree with catkim that a different tree would be a better choice, all things considered. "I assume that a walkway the visually greets guests from the sidewalk would appear more welcoming than one that leads from the driveway... Do you think that I'm incorrect in this assumption?" edit: Oops ... I meant, in a word YES! (to the question about the assumption.) You should create a walk that looks like it makes the best sense for the overall property ... and a walk directly to the city sidewalk is not necessarily more welcoming. You might not want to duplicate what exists a mere few feet away. Much of it depends on the geometry of how a walk would be laid out, it's width, materials and/or finishes. I'm not saying a separate walk directly to the city walk would look bad, but that it might not be an improvement over one that ties to the drive. It depends on all the factors involved. You might explore similar houses in the neighborhood to see if others have come up with successful variations. This post was edited by Yardvaark on Sun, Oct 27, 13 at 12:25

How about cork oak? (if you're able to find it) As far as desert trees, I think you're thinking of Palo Verde. I think it would meet all your needs. If you were willing to have fruit, a fig tree could be another option, but they can get messy if you don't harvest all the fruit before it falls to the ground (unless you got a male fig tree). Pakistan mulberry might be another option, this variety is more tolerant to heat, and mulberry trees have beautiful shade leaf foliage, but again, if you don't pick all those mulberries it can be messy. Last one to mention is a "California pepper tree" (actually originates from Peru). It's a medium-fast grower and is fairly drought tolerant. But a word of caution, if you do supply it with a lot of water for many years and it does grow big, but then it goes years without any water at all, it will suffer drought stress and become susceptible to disease. Only the bush-level trees that haven't grown to a huge size are truly fully drought tolerant. They can drop a lot of leaves and little red berries, so can be a bit messy. Pepper trees also put out a lot of surface roots, so it's unlikely you're going to plant anything below it. Before you plant one, I'd rub the leaves across the top of your hand because there are a small number of people who have a contact allergy to the leaves. They can be a beautiful medium small tree.

kerrican2001(z9b CA), nonaberrie(sf bay area), sandylighthouse(7), fruithack, teajm_yahoo_com Can you tell me more about fig trees? Ive never noticed them up here in the SF Bay as much as I did in Venice/Santa Monica in LA. Which varieties do well here? Do they grow tall? Can they be pruned so that they grow tall and stay narrow? I have a small front yard that is mandated to have a tree and I just cut down our existing one and am considering putting in a fig tree on both sides of the driveway. ( I started a separate thread in this subforum for it as well)