[Marco]

I have VERY tall old growth cedar trees in my beautiful Seattle back yard. The tress are all healthy and pruned up to about the 25-30 ft area, as to allow good sunlight exposure thru the day on the areas of lawn and flower beds below & adjacent to them. (the back yard is big, about ¼ acre) The Problem: as spring turns into summer, no matter how much I water, the lawn around the base of each tree in about 10 ft diameter does really bad: brown & super-dry. (I know this is because the high root system of the big tress takes all the water I give in those areas) What I need is suggestions to “beautify” this unsightly area around the base of the big trees during the summer months. Entertaining in our wonderful Pacific NW backyard is always like pulling teeth for me because I don’t want guests to see those areas around the base of our big trees......what can we do to dress those areas up and make that lawn less unsightly? THANKS !!!

[trees]

Do a mulch ring around the trees. Mother Nature has been telling you that grass won't do, so why fight it?

Mulch is a nice, clean look.

[Inspired]

Here in the Phoenix area I would suggest planting some shrubs under those trees. Of course, you will probably need to extend or up grade your irrigation in those areas.

Landscape lighting would be neat to highlight those trees and shrubs. Of course, you'll have to install or extend a lighting system to handle the new wattage demand.

Mulch sounds nice.

[agla]

If you really want grass growing there, you could put an inch of sand over the roots and then 4" of topsoil and lawn over that. The sand will keep the cedars from sucking water out of the top layer.

[Dale Wiley]

Replicate mother nature.

A cedar tree of that size will remove 200 gallons of water a day. Mulch it lightly and then plant native shrubs with drip irrigtion to each shrub.

I need to disagree with agla here, putting that kind of top soil and materials, will cut off all air supply to the roots of the cedar tree and promptly kill it in Seattles wet climate.

[jwholden]

topdress with composy, mulch and groundcover

[HardDaysKnight]

Originally posted by trees
Do a mulch ring around the trees. Mother Nature has been telling you that grass won't do, so why fight it?

Mulch is a nice, clean look.

I agree. It will create a park-like setting.
Put up a hammock or a birdbath or place a bench.

[VoodooChile]

Visqueen and cherry-red gravel!!!

Just kidding...we removed about 10 yards of gravel mulch today, and I have gravel on the brain.

Agla,
you have done this? My reaction is the same as dale's...death sentence for big tree.

Mulch, shrubs, irrigation, all good ideas, but I would go with jw and the groundcover, like Hosta, Pacysandra, or Barrenwort for starters.

[agla]

I have not known Western Red Cedar (Thuja plicata), which is what I think we are talking about, have such a delicate root system. It is very similar to arborvitae and has a lot of very fiberous roots up near the surface as well as the roots below. I would not expect disaster by doing this on this particular tree. Although, I don't know how long it would take for those surface roots to cross over the sand layer.

Water will still get through, but it will not have the ability to pull all of the water out of the tighter capillaries in the soil above the bigger voids in the sand.

I have not done this specifically for this reason. I have isolated soil above another soil using sand before in small areas.

[cutntrim]

Agree with the mulch plan. Hostas and Ferns, some understory trees natural to your area...