Ask-a-Dave's-Gardener: fixing soil in a wooded/shady lot, 1 by marianna71

marianna71 wrote:
I just purchased a new house in Cleveland, Ohio. The home a long back yard with a few trees on it, making it nice and shaded. The problem is that the ground is rock solid and the soil does not seem overly nutrient rich. The trees (two oaks and a third I don\'t know) seem not to be as full and leafy as others I have seen. What can I do (short of tilling in a bunch of new compost) to improve the soil quality and the health of my trees?

I was considering starting with not raking leaves and instead mulching them with my lawnmower, but past that, I don\'t know. Currently the ground is covered with short ground cover weeds (a small amount of grass, but I would prefer not to encourage that as I don\'t want to mow). The photo is a bit doctored as the backyard is not that intensely green. What looks like grass is mostly a mix of various short weeds/ground cover.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.