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.

Yes, I know it has been years since anyone has posted a note on this site but....I have a retaining wall that my husband built about 6 years ago. We planted nice plants and some vinca, (big mistake, HUGE), the vinca has taken over everyting and is cascading down the wall. I want it gone! What I would like to do is take up all the plantings, (read vinca), and replace it all with nice looking stone gravel. But I do not want to waste time with thnigs that will not work. I am way to busy, and have an organic farm operation, with this seriously ugly front landscaping. I am looking at taking out all the vinca plantings with a weedeater than putting "round up" on it, then plastic and then the nice looking gravel stone. I am too busy with other stuff to do this more than once. What I need to know is: Will my plan work, and what kind of landscaping plastic do I need as a base for the gravel? Please someone help me! I would very much appreciate any advice. I am only planning on doing this once! Sending this out into the big black hole called the internet, hoping someone can help. thanks,

Casino is made by a company in grand forks bc. It's not nearly as hardy as capilano here for me. I've had issues with my casino perhaps I got a crappy tree or roots. The two trees in Calgary the Riley ones make nice fruit especially the one that flowers pink. If you guys don't want to drive down yourselfs I will send you some as much as you want in mail it's not far for me to drive but hours for you guys. Not very hard for me to do for fellow hobbiest. It grows just as hardy as capilano. I've never tasted capilano but the fruit looks a big better off your Edmonton tree in pics nicer orange apricot. Hopefully I get capilano fruits. Im not entirely sure what capilano trees I have grafted I'd love if somebody up in Edmonton would cut some for me and send me a bit of it this spring.

Gorgeous pics, PK! Lauren, I'm just southeast of you In Waxahachie. I have full southwestern sun in front & part shade in back & on one side. The other side is "ungardenable". Just a narrow strip between the house & the neighbor's wood fence, it's just a walkway for me & a nursery for poison ivy & trumpet vine! I started along the sidewalk & expanded from there; seems like it keeps me from straying too far, messing up proportions, & having to undo & re-do. I put a rosemary on each side of the sidewalk close to the front door; it's evergreen & it smells like Christmas when I get the mail! There are nandinas at the corner of the house, softening the sharp corner, & right now they're at their best, still green & loaded with red berries. Along the side next to the neighbor I put 3 Lady Banks roses, as a hedge of flowering shrubs. They do get sparse in the winter but they never have gone totally bald. There's a Martha Gonzales rose on each side of the sidewalk where it intersects with the public sidewalk that defines the "hellstrip". They're compact, pretty much evergreen, & they have gorgeous blue-green foliage & burgundy stems, & the flowers are a bright cheery red. I widened the beds on the front & side of the house, & they have salvias, mums, flame acanthus, lemon mint (I love it for the "makes you smile" fragrance, but it does spread!), old irises, mistflower, a couple of crinums for proportion, & a lot of "tote & plop" plants, the ones you can't resist bringing home, & then you have to tote them around until you spy a bit of earth where you can plop them! Along the sidewalk leading to the Marthas, there are dusty miller, obedient plant, datura for proportion/contrast, & a few dwarf cannas that I may move this spring...it seems like they're more backyard flowers than front yard. Along the hellstrip on the northeast, I have roses, crinums, tons of irises, & some tall Mexican petunias that have to be watched lest they take over the universe but which bloom in the summer when everything else suffers in the heat. In the shadier areas, there are cast iron plant, Jewel of Opar, pigeonberry, & probably some other stuff that I can't remember right now! Although my little plastic wading pools are no comparison to PK's (I pile up mulch around them & pretend I can't see the blue plastic), I have 2 of them in the back, one for bog plants & one for water garden plants. At the corner, on the small wedge-shaped area defined by 2 streets & the intersection of the 2 sidewalks, there are red yucca, salvia, a four o'clock, & a big group of irises, Scattered throughout the whole place are paperwhites, narcissus, lycoris radiate, etc. Between all of this, I'm working diligently to replace the huge brittle old hackberries with juniper, olive, gingko, crepe myrtle, & loquat, & to lay down brick pathways. The things I've learned about cottage gardens & other lawn-less gardens are: If you possibly can, draw your lot on paper, sketching in the house, fences, sidewalks, utility areas (I keep the compost pile & the trash can in the narrow strip by the neighbor!). Draw in pathways where you generally walk, & keep those areas clear. You will get tired of walking around a planting area to take out the trash! I just happen to know this. Make a list of some things you like, & color code the list for the environments those things need, such as shade or sun, & their mature size (do as I say, not as I did: I'm the person who once planted a Mermaid rose beneath the eaves!). This will also keep you from planting bur oaks beneath electric lines. I haven't done that one, but it broke my heart to see the electric company's "trimmers" mutilating 100-year-old oak trees in my neighborhood, cutting big "V"s in the middle... Pencil in some things, such as rosemary by the front door, lemon mint by the back gate, bird feeders where you can see them from the window you use most-such as over the kitchen sink or in front of the computer desk. Pick long-lived plants, or plants that self-seed, when you can. Plant irises where they can be mulchless, & where the neighbor's magnificent century-old oak tree won't shower them with bushels of leaves every autumn. Plant the things that need more attention close to where you will see them every day. Make room for a sitting/tea-drinking/visiting area, including a table & enough space to scoot your chair back without bumping a flowerbed or smacking the edging. Enjoy your garden, engage with it, play with it, have fun!