Hello all! Today I decided to give the lilac trees a real good trim. The trees are at least 30 years old if not more and some have problems. I've uploaded 4 pictures. The first picture is a branch I just cut down today and as you can see there's a hole in it. Second picture is a branch that I...

I have 4 very big lilac trees (over 50 years old) in line along the fence covering about 40' long by 8' wide and nothing grows there because of all the shade. Besides hostas what would grow there? I'm in Montreal so zone 5a I guess. Is it a good idea to put mulch at the base of lilac trees...