Texas Gardening: input on weeping willows, 1 by htop

htop wrote:
Weeping willow is a beautiful tree when placed out in the open with adequate water and lots of room to grow. It has extensive leaf and twig drop which can be a litter problem, a shallow root system and weak, brittle wood which breaks easily. Wind and ice storms can cause a lot of damage. (You never know ... with the weather being so weird the past 2 years, you might actually have a bad ice strom where you live). Dead and damaged wood will need to be pruned out (which can be done at anytime). Insect nuisances include aphids, borers, defoliators, gall insects, Japanese beetles, lacebugs, sawflies, scale insects and spider mites. The tree is difficult to kill if you decide you don't want it anymore and will produce many suckers from the stump. Live twigs which fall to the ground and are not picked up will root if provided enough moisture.

In my neighborhood, the grass under the weeping willows is not dead from lack of light. They actually let a lot of light come through them. One is planted where the grass (St. Augustine) receives morning sun and afternoon shade. My neighbor shears the bottoms of the branches up enough so that a person can walk under the tree which also allows more light for the grass. iBermuda grass may thin out or from lack of light depending upon where the tree is situated and whether or not you will want to have to trim the bottoms of the branches up from the ground some.

A weeping willow that has been trimmed ...