I have a huge Silver Leaf Maple that has had Asian Jasmine around the base for around 8 years. I am now hearing from Howard that this is very bad for the tree. It looks great, but I don't want to lose the tree. What is the best way to take care of this? If I just take the tree ring out will that loosen everything up enough?
The area between the tree and the house is very shaded and low, so my St. Augustine has never done well there (because it's low, not because of the shade), so I planted Asian Jasmine there as a ground cover. I had hoped to integrate this new area with the Jasmine around the tree. Any suggestions on how to best handle this is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Terry

Cut the jasmine off at ground level around the tree. Clear it off the trunk as much as you can. Every now nad then, just manually prune it away from the tree. If you're going to use Jasmine as a groundcover, a little maintenance to keep it off undesired places is the cost.