shade

We are wanting to build a pergola on a wooden deck that is raised about 4 feet off the ground. Looking for suggestions on how to best secure the posts without having go under the deck, dig and concrete them in.

My wife and I just bought a house in a place that looks like a desert, I believe the reason it looks like a desert is because of the soil. I want to plant some trees because we have no shade..... At all! The soil is full of some large and some small white rock the kind that is ground up into...

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...