Sounds like you're caught between a rock and a hard place. With the leaves and acorns, fall seeding isn't much of an option, but with the heat, spring seeding doesn't give enough time for the grass to establish to live through the summer. It's too late for this year, but is dormant seeding an option? I'm not sure if your winters are cold enough, but dormant seeding is my best option. We have heat that lasts through September, then snow starting in October, so fall seeding doesn't work. And the time from snow melt to 90 degree days is also short, so spring seeding fails. Dormant seeding works well for me. If winters are mild enough, maybe you could even seed late fall/early winter. If the seed sprouts, maybe enough would last through the winter to get a good start. The cold itself doesn't do cool season grasses much harm. What harms them is when the ground freezes and thaws, disrupting the baby roots before they're established. Maybe with your mild winters that would be less of a concern.

We've all got things that keep us awake at night. But in my world, 9 or 10 feet until concrete is exactly the same as no concrete in sight anywhere. That is, I would never worry about such a supposed issue. My gawd, we plant thousands of street trees which would never make the cut if that were a limiting factor! Not yelling at you, Joe, just saying, it's good to think ahead, but don't let that thinking paralyze you!

Thanks for the comments! Alex, I live in an apartment in Minneapolis, so these guys are at my parents' place for now. They live on two mostly wooded acres. I've already cut down as many trees that are realistically possible and my dad refuses to let me expand into his precious yard so my space is becoming limited. I still have about 3-4 years before I can buy my own house so we'll see how I can still feed my addiction. Will, I'm sure we got our 'Nitschke Cream's from the same source. Mine gets less than 4 hours of morning sun each day. I was concerned about it burning so I sited it where it would get no afternoon sun. Are you saying that you wish yours would get some green on it? Because I think yours looks pretty cool.

Went back to the Capilano trees today. The south tree is in bloom, but I would call it a sparse bloom, certainly nothing like the sea of white blooms Konrad posted last May. The photo below is a bit washed out because the light was so harsh, but I think you can make out the scattered white blooms on the branches on the left-hand side and in the crown. BTW, this photo is taken from the opposite side of the tree from all the other pics, just because the light was so strong and everything was only in silhouette from the normal direction. The north tree(s) have nothing, not a single bloom. A telephoto pic of the crown shows lots of green leaf buds, but no flowers or buds. A nearby apricot on a private residence that was smothered in blossoms last year, this year has only two flowers on the entire tree. South tree: North tree: