The problem you might be running into is the term "maple." That is a whole family of trees with dozens of species with various characteristics, everything from the tiniest japanese maple to the largest black maple. You need scientific names to make sure you get the right species. Two "maple" trees to avoid are silver maple and norway maple. The scientific name for silver maple is Acer saccharinum. The scientific name for Norway maple is Acer plantanoides. Both are fast growing trees, which is a great characteristic if you want fast shade in your lifetime, but makes for weak wood so they are susceptible to disease and hollowing out, etc. and can fall over. They are also short lived trees. They are unlikely to rot out and die in your lifetime, but perhaps the next owner or the next's. These trees are all over the big box nurseries, so now you know to avoid them. Red maple is slower growing. There is a hybrid (cross) between red maple and silver maple out there that is commonly sold, I'm not sure how wind resistent it is. Not even sure if it thrives in your climate, maybe not. Forget what I said about Honey Locust on the Garden Design forum, it doesn't grow in your zone, sorry. Another alternative that was mentioned here is Nyssa sylvatica, which I have heard referred to commonly as Black gum. Below is a link to trees recommended for your zone. I have no idea how these trees do with hurricanes, but I doubt a tree would get big enough in your lifetime to drop on you and kill you. So leave that headache for the future, lol! How about a magnolia? That one doesn't get huge branches, at least not around here. It has a roundish crown, so no individual section gets that big. You can also control how a tree branches by pruning it early on. Really, the main thing you want to avoid is what I mentioned at the beginning of this post, trees that rot out in the middle. Those trees are the ones that can have unknown problems and all of a sudden crack and break. But again, probably not in your lifetime. When it's cold, snakes like to bask in the sun on rocks, so avoid rock landscaping in sunny spots. They also hide in debris piles, under low shrubs, etc. If you have a woodpile next you your house that might be area to find snakes occasionally. So if you plant trees for shade, you shouldn't be doing anything that will particularly draw snakes to your house, they have plenty of shade out in the back woods. Although there are no guarantees. What I'd do is learn to identify poisonous snakes, and just be careful. Ordinary caution should take care of it, it is very unlikely that you'll get bitten unless you start pestering a snake or startle it. Usually they slither away. And if you do get bitten if you get medical help it's unlikely that you will get seriously ill. I'm not pooh poohing snake concerns, I'm just saying you have to consider it part of life, you're much more likely to get hit by a car or get in a car accident, and yet you don't cower in fear when getting in your car. Please don't think this is condescending, believe me I know what it is like to have annoying wildlife to deal with, and I assume that's what you'd like to avoid around your house and that makes total sense. Stick with the tips I mention and you should be fine. Oh, and as for kid friendly landscaping, how about some fruit trees? Although they have bees, but again, just teach your kids to pay attention a little bit to what they are doing when outside. I worked for years at a camp, not too many injuries caused by wildlife. The worst problem we had was kids unknowingly stepping on nests of ground bees. But trees have very little to do with whether you'll get those or not. Here is a link that might be useful: Tree Selection guide from South Carolina Forestry Commission

Thanks palmcirtusbananavaz7! Dennis, I think the largest majesty I saw was in the part 1 of the pics. Im trying to remember if I saw a larger majesty palm because I think I did, but their definitely weren't too many large majesty palms. But the majesty palms I did see looked very healthy! Thanks for looking! -Alex

Darn. Thought I had a solution. Ok, so the only way to improve above surface drainage is through grading. Below surface drainage cannot be helped without mass amendments. But mass amendments raise the possibility of actually harming proper drainage if the entire site isn't amended, and even then, we're messing with the subsoil, and you just don't know what that might do. The AirTech treatment has the advantage of not dramatically changing the subsoil in different sections, which I read, Brandon7, as one of your main arguments against amending. So far, so good. The person at the company said that fissuring the soil at multiple levels and multiple areas in rings around the root zones, beginning at the actual planting hole--like some kind of Jedi version of fracking--would have the effect of improving water flow AND would introduce important microbial development which would encourage root growth outward. So I though that solved some of the problems. I think you're exactly right that we'd need to repeat the process as much as twice a year, but maybe more like every year or so. So that's a problem. But, again, you don't like amending. So I'm back at the beginning. One last thing: the person with AirTech did say that in addition to the treatment, we should come in with two inches of good topsoil and another two to four inches of mulch on top. He said that this would work its way downward. He also said that mixing 5-10% organic matter into the planting hole wouldn't be a bad thing, but it's not necessarily vital.

Thanks for the reply zzackey. I didn't realize the homesteading forum would be so quiet, and figured I'd get more responses by now. I appreciate your encouragement... think maybe I'll post this in another area of GW too soon if I don't start to figure out how to clear before hand.