Thanks, GG! I was really starting to worry. :)

The oaks that are persnickety about disturbances inside the drip line are the California Live oaks.

Thanks, LG! I saw posts/articles about live oaks, but I thought it meant an oak that was alive. Lol Thanks for clarifying.

I gotta kill some silver maples and plant me some oaks. The roots on those suckers are ridiculous. I am jealous, Carolina!

Lol I read some awful things about planting near silver maples....thank goodness I have none! The billion willow oak seedlings/acorns are annoying enough, but that is all they are....annoying. They are easy to pull.

I am so glad you three think I will be ok. I started pulling plants to put in pots today. I will overwinter some in a covered porch, some in pots outside, and some in a 4x4 raised bed out back. The rest I will give away. We aren't digging until Thanksgiving, but I want to be sure the plants have time to settle before it gets cold. I am excited!!

Tox, good luck with the sugar maples!! Yikes!

I hate oaks! Nothing, NOTHING!!! grow near them! even grass. They are chocking even trees nearby and attract squirrels .... Oaks should live in the forest and leave alone garden sites and front yards. There are too many other variety of trees which are much more decorative at least and no cause of squirrel infestation.

Their aggressive roots will fill even raised beds with root blocking bottoms. Nothing could stop them to go for eating flower foods . Oaks and gardeners are not a good friends.:))

Augusta, that doesn't sound good! What type of oaks are you referring to? I have had raised beds under the outer edges of the canopy or right outside the canopy of my willow oak for 6-8 years. Thankfully, no beds have been raised yet! Sounds like I need to do some checking after I pull out all the followers. How many years did it take before the oak(s) infiltrated your flower beds?

I definitely would not plant an oak if it was up to me. I HATE squirrels--they have become a huge nuisance since my squirrel-catching dog died in February. :( Thankfully, I can grow grass near and slightly under mine...long as it gets water (I just read I shouldn't have been watering that area due to possible fungus, but it is water going to the flowers....and, no fungus yet).

I think a great many other gardeners have opinions that differ from augusta's :-) Grass grows easily underneath, even underneath California live oaks, which are arguably the most difficult species to underplant (primarily because they are evergreen and rain water penetration through the canopy is sparse).

Here are a couple of photos of oaks with a variety of underplanting. As a landscape designer, I have done this many, many times and have been very successful!!

garden web photos · More Info

garden web photos · More Info

My zone is 7b east coast too.

I have red oaks, white oaks, live oaks and some other kind of oaks I don't know their exact name. Several years in row I was planting different grasses under them. I tried seeds, sod, rhizomes of torpedo grass -nothing rooted so far. I tried to plant grasses in different seasons and techniques -no any growing yet.

I tried 2 flower beds on 5-6 yards distance for years, my flowers just suffer there, even opuncia felt very bad. After I 've transplanted it faraway from oaks it starts to grow and even produce fruits like crazy. :)))

Tree roots came to flower beds in the same season when beds were established.

Gardengal, I didn't know you were a landscape planner! Thanks for the reassurance. :):) Do you have any tips on how to plant under oaks successfully? Those photos...WOW! Especially that grass in the first one. I would love to get mine to look like that. :):) Everything looks healthy and happy in both photos.

Augusta, OUCH! Sounds like yours have been quite rude to you! =:o Willow oak is related to red oak. Sorry to hear yours have been such a pain. :( So far in digging things up, I haven't really seen any signs of our roots coming up. I wonder if that is because dh insisted I use weed barrier (he feels/says that the barrier will stop most feeder roots, and that the feeder roots turn into bigger roots) at the bottom of our boxes (only 6 inches high...whoops). I know the barrier stuff is mostly evil and I think it has caused some definite issues for me (a big reason why I am redoing everything), but I wonder if it has helped somehow, too. Hmmm Thanks for the warning!