What Emborthrium said. Your general choice is grass or trees, not both (there are exceptions but this doesn't appear to be one of them).

You can mulch for attractiveness, or put in nice planters under the trees with shade plants in them, but grass doesn't look like it's going to work.

Darn! That sucks! Okay thank you! What type of planters are you talking about? You do have a pic example?

To make it worse, that big tree looks like it is a maple, maybe? They are notorious for trailing roots on the surface across the lawn, as you are finding out.

Limbing up that maple could help. Lack of sun is playing a role in the sparse grass situation.

Plant a shade garden under the trees. Grass is overrated and contributes nothing to sustain pollinators, birds, etc. :-)

We have similar tree situations in our yard-one landscaper said it was a drainage issue and that thinning out some of the upper branches to give more sunlight may help, but I didn’t like that idea bc I love the Shade of the trees. I mulched one of the trees which covers some of the area and will put down some groundcover around the other tree eventually (hosta, ivy, lily of valley, etc.). Someone also told me that you can try to put down better soil in the area around the tree and then throw some type of the More expensive grass seed down to fill some of it in.

It looks like you've taken the first steps to killing a few of the trees by piling soil up against the trunk. This is a slow death (8-10 years) and worsening curb appeal all that time. The bark on the trunk will get a rot which essentially girdles the tree. If you want to keep the trees then blow that soil away from the trunk until you can see where the roots flare out away from the tree.

As has been said, the trees could be thinned out, and that would help put more sunlight on the grass underneath.

Your assumption that the trees are sucking up all the nutrients does not match most people's experience. I used to have a yard where the tree canopies connected for 75 feet and the grass grew up to the trunk just fine with zero.zero full sun. You have to have the right grass under the tree. If you live in the north, that grass is fescue. If you live in the south, that grass is St Augustine.

You have to limb up trees, up to 50% of their total height, and let light in below them. But you seem to have too many trees, too. (We don't have a good picture of the overall of your lot, like a person would see as they approach it from the street.) With so many trees, likely you will have to convert to groundcover or settle for a mulch yard. :-(

The problem isn't as much the trees stealing nutrients as it is they are hogging all the sun ... the plant's sole energy source.

I hate tripping on tree roots so I would remove the tree.

>> Darn! That sucks! Okay thank you! What type of planters are you talking about? You do have a pic example?

Any barrel-type planter can be put in the area under the tree and plants put into it (draping plants like the most shade-tolerant begonia might work there).

If you were to Google "raised planter under tree" you'll see lots of designs that involve ringing the tree and building soil up around it. Don't do that. Trees surface-root for a reason--usually they really like having their crowns at surface level, and like surface roots for plenty of oxygenated soil. The vast majority of tree roots are actually in the top six inches for most trees, with only tap roots going deeper.

Sinking a crown or main roots is a "quick" way to kill a tree. I kept a Japanese red maple alive for a decade once with a crown (unbeknownst to me) buried two feet deep, but I didn't know why it gave me such trouble until it died and I removed it. The landscaper had overburied it because it looked better, apparently. I would have said something, but he had died not very long before the tree did.

Let the tree do what it wants, in other words. :-)

You can certainly limb out a tree, but keep in mind it does damage the tree and doesn't mean grass will do any better. The tree is still sucking out water at a ferocious rate, even if water is more available, and shade is still going to be at least fifty percent if the limbing is done right (harder limbing than that will probably harm the tree beyond repair).

Most grasses still aren't going to like those conditions, which will also steadily get shadier as the tree fills back in, but you can certainly grow part sun plants in planters for the interim.

I just did this with mini bark chips, looks good so far and I’m hoping this type of mulch keeps the weeds at bay better than the regular type. I’m willing to take the risk of the chips blowing around some in the wind.

Great idea Jenn!