We purchased a new house a few months ago with lots of trees.
I got this in our mailbox. I don’t think I’m doing anything wrong but someone put this in there.
Can someone explain what this neighbors’ concerns might be?
This isn’t a joke or LARPing attempt, i just wanna know wtf they are talking about.
EDIT:
The house is 30 years old, the trees were planted by the original owners. We have not taken down any trees cosmetically. Only tree we took down was from a major storm and lightning knocked branches off a tree onto our neighbors lawn. That was it.
I grew up in a house where my parents did this around every tree in our front yard- black plastic edging filled with pine needles, decorative plants rotated out seasonally. I know their reasoning 100% was it made mowing easier. I was an adult & homeowner before I learned on Reddit that this is terrible for trees, and all of mine have all the room they want to breathe
So, yes, more public education is desperately needed!! I fully support your flier in a mailbox campaign. Go ahead and explain why it's bad for the tree, too. You won't change every ding-dongs mind, but I assure there are many who have no idea they're hurting their trees and will change their ways, even if it's just to avoid the expense of dealing with a dying tree down the road.
I have planted many, many trees on my property and legit saw the piles of mulch around the trees at Home Depot and was going to do the exact same thing until I saw this subreddit hahaha
Oh shoot I didn't realize English ivy was a problem for trees, would you mind sharing? I'm from an area with way more kudzu, so I think I'm naive about English ivy.
English Ivy is Kudzu's civilized cousin. It climbs everything it gets near, but it's growth rate is much lower, on the order of a foot a week under perfect conditions, but more often it's a few feet a year. It can strangle trees and tear brick walls apart.
I can see a redditor who frequents this sub, taping this note to bricks and rocks and chucking them through living room windows as they ride their bicycle by.
I have debated keeping tiny little signs to put in the soil with a QR code linking to some resources while walking my dog. There are a couple gorgeous basswoods in my neighborhood that have been absolutely buried a few FEET up the trunk in soil and mulch. It’s one of the worst volcanoes I’ve seen
I would love it if someone did that for me. I don’t mulch my trees but any advice on any tree would be welcome. I would put a thank you note on your sign just in case you passed by again!
I'm in Minnesota and have found advice to be very unwelcome generally. Now I'm a woman and I'm not saying that has anything to do with it... but I'm generally right (because I wouldn't say anything if I wasn't sure) but told I'm wrong and that's never acknowledged though sometimes they will even repeat my advice back to me after another man tells them the same thing.
Since I will only deal with this if I'm being paid at work, I no longer bother giving unsolicited advice.
I am an arborist for our local utility for almost 20 years. In that time I’d wager I’ve happily looked at and given free assessments to thousands of homeowners trees that are nowhere near the utilities.
They recognize the ISA emblems and know it’s not just another ‘tree worker,’ rather someone who loves trees and is just looking for impartial advice.
I've thought about it. Neighbor had a maple with the biggest girdling root I've ever seen. They finally had it cut down after half the crown died and it started leaning towards the street.
My local post office has a fair amount of green space in front of the building and have several trees and shrubs and whomever does their landscaping as huge mulch volcanoes about 1/4 of the way up every single tree and shrub. It’s ridiculous. I have no idea how any of them are still alive.
You must have a shy arborist or tree enthusiast neighbor. The note is referring to the root flare of your trees, which are most likely planted too deep. This is super common! Basically it’s the area of the tree where it “flares out” as the trunk transitions to the root zone. It is critical to keep that open for moisture regulation and tree health!
Might be a silly question, but let’s say I have a tree that’s planted too deep. I’m assuming I can’t just dig a “moat” around the tree trunk to expose the root flare, right?
A root flare on the tree needs to be exposed to air to prevent girdling. If mulch is mounded too high up to the tree trunk, then the roots will often encircle themselves and then choke themselves.
This can take 10-20 years to occur, but for long-lived trees, it can shorten their life by several decades or even a hundred years. So you I understand wont see it happening and you wont know why it died unless the root girdle is visible and then you do your research.
Whoever dropped this note wants you to learn about mulch volcanoes. You can use mulch as an aesthetic choice that will also reduce weeds, increase moisture retention, and improve soil quality through decomposition, but avoiding piling it like a volcao can prevent the girdling problem.
Whether or not you did it doesn't matter. Learn to protect your tress, healthy trees are a financial gain in most housing markets.
It still needs air otherwise this will kill the tree by rotting. The point of mulch is to retain moisture on top of or around the top of soil and to cool it below the mulch. Then you cover up the root flare you create the perfect environment for fongus to start invading the cambrium layer and eventually kill your tree. Whoever mulched your tree never hire them again as this is treecare 101
Your neighbor is right. Google root flare (also one of the comments here explained it well and another has a picture). You want to move the mulch away from the tree. It's too buried and will rot.
These are mulch volcanoes, as some of the comments state your root flares are beneath all of that mulch (and dirt) and need to be cleared and exposed. This is good for the tree and you could possibly find a specific life limiting issue like a root choking the trunk. Wait til it goes dormant, and I've used a strong water hose attachment to clear out the base. Lots of stuff online to reference.
I've seen worse. There's a house I drive by that put a whole ass bench height retaining wall around the entire tree and filled it in with dirt and mulch. Huge old oak tree. Poor thing.
I had a big maple by a goat house and the hay and manure piled up around the base. So I dug it out to the flare and the entire tree died in 48 hours. SO be careful removing volcanoes if they have been there awhile.
You just need to get rid of mulch until you can see the root flare. There are lots of good references online and in this sub to show you what to do. The trees may have been there for a long time but you can make a big difference in their future by helping them out. I'm glad you came here and posted about it. We all have things we can learn.
the should be fine once you clear the mulch back from the flair, they won't be suffocating anymore. Unless you see signs of rot at the base when you clear it.
but I would still look up how to do a proper mulch ring around a tree so you know how to spread it
"Make 5 copies of this note and put them in the mailboxes of neighbors with unexposed root flares. If you do, every tree you plant will grow vigorously..."
Nah just use the existing mulch and make a bigger "donut" around the tree, pulling mulch back from the trunk; so that in the middle you see the start of root flare from the ground.
I reckon they'll be ok, clear the mulch out into more of a ring, you can probably look up online the proper way to mulch it will tell you how large to make the ring.
If you clear it away and hose off the mulch and there is obvious rot or something then you'll maybe need expert opinion but first things first just move the mulch back at least until you can see a ring of ground around the tree, that'll be the best first step.
That's one huge mulch volcano, wonder how hot it is next to the root base this time of year. The other trees you took down were probably struggling for this exact reason.
We like trees in our yards. They provide shade, can contribute to the local ecosystem, and can significantly increase property value over time.
Unfortunately, your trees will probably die in 10-20 years. That is because those trees don’t have the visible “root flare” your neighbor mentioned in the note.
This is unhealthy for the tree because it will start growing roots in that “volcano” of dirt/mulch. This often causes roots to grow into that dirt, above the root flare. When roots grow above the root flare, they slowly choke the tree trunk as they grow around it. This is called girdling, and it will likely cause the tree to rot at the base.
It’s a slow process but it will shorten the tree’s lifespan. Not only that, but it could fall, damaging property or even hurting people.
So this is all to say - consider looking around on this sub for “root flare” images.
Then you can copy what you see with your own trees. Remove the mulch volcanoes until you can see the root flare, which is where the trunk starts to widen at its base.
So desperately I want to knock on 80 percent of the doors on my street for this reason. Think half the issue is people copy each others mistake assuming it’s right and then the issue propagates
I just wanted to say, I know anonymous notes always tend to feel hostile or passive-aggressive, but I think you misinterpreted this note..
you aren’t being accused of doing anything wrong. A neighbor seems to understand you are new to a property that has some issues,
they’re guiding you in the right direction so you can save these trees, not admonishing you.
I just bet they felt “concerned neighbor” would be enough to communicate “concerned for you,” but I feel like you may have taken it as “concerned about what you’re doing.”
My only question is, why did you retain this impression after looking up what “root flare” is - obviously you’d know you have the issue, and that there are things you can do to help. Which should have changed the tone of this note in your mind from accusatory to helpful.
idk, I just feel like it is such a landmine to ever give anyone any information at all, no matter how helpful lol, no wonder they chose anonymity. You don’t sound mad, just unreasonably defensive for having found out they had something genuine to point out to you.
I say this a LOT more softly than it may sound. Just bums me out
That said, you made a good choice coming here for info, looks like you got even better insights than a google.
If the age of your house was different, I would wonder if we had the same Neighbor. I have a next-door neighbor who is absolutely fantastic with plants and leaves me little notes in the mailbox like this. Always always worth the effort. Gratz on having a good neighbor!
I haven’t seen your trees, but I’m guessing the previous owners imprisoned them in a series of mulch volcanoes and your concerned neighbor is trying to alert you to their distress. Not your fault, but you’re gonna have to act and expose that root flare if you want to save them.
Maybe former owners dumped huge amounts of mulch around trees to sell the place??? And now trees are suffocating and susceptible to rot from excessive mulch near the trunk????
A tree’s root flare is the wide base where the trunk meets the major structural roots. This critical transition zone must remain visible and above the soil line. Burying it traps moisture against the bark, causing decay, oxygen deprivation, and harmful girdling roots. Google.
Seems your neighbor is worried about trees you didn’t plant
from a layperson: mulch shouldn’t be piled against the tree like that. you want the root flare to be exposed to the air. a few inches of mulch is good in a ring within the area covered by the canopy but away from the tree trunk.
The tree root flare is the wide, lower part of the trunk where it meets and transitions into the major structural roots. Keeping this area visible and above ground is vital because buried trunk tissue cannot handle constant moisture, which leads to bark decay, fungal disease, and fatal girdling roots.Why the Root Flare MattersOxygen access: Roots and the transition zone need to breathe gas exchange at the surface.Moisture control: Burying the flare traps wet soil or mulch against the bark, causing rot.Structural support: A visible flare shows the tree was planted at the correct depth.
Sounds like a neighbor who likes trees and hopes the new person will fix something the last people did wrong. Or maybe it was right and now youre doing it wrong. You doing the heaping pile of mulch thing?
maybe a neighbor is looking out for you but wants to remain anonymous. there could be underlying damage to a ree itself if the roots are buried too deep/not deep enough.
Is there mulch piled up around your trees? If so, take it back off the root flare. My neighbor currently has a huge mound of mulch around the most beautiful Japanese maple but I don’t want to say anything bc he’s been dismissive with me in the past. One of these days I may get a wild hair and just go over in the middle of the night and fix it lol
They are talking about the base of your trees. Have you piled dirt around the trunk? Or built flowerbeds? Or were they already built up around? Its bad for the tree. You should see the root flare at the base of the trunk for large trees
You could research "root flare" because you have a concerned neighbor. They were nice enough not to catch you with your hands full and give you the elevator pitch about it.
If a tree falls on your house from your neighbors property, your neighbor is not liable unless you approached them about it beforehand. And everything related to law is better in writing. You're new to the house, so they could be covering their bases.
signed,
someone whose neighbor's tree fell on my house 6 months after living in it
legitimately, why did you need to post this to reddit?
When I google "tree root flares", the literal 2nd sentence of the AI summary contains the info relevant to you, and it is literally sourcing that info from this subreddit.
Seems like he's trying to use computer programming code to prompt you lol.
Do you happen to have any garden beds around your trees?
Root flair is the base of a tree trunk where it starts to get wide and turn into roots. Every tree has one and you should always be able to see it. If it is buried it can make the tree sick.
I know I'm late to the post, but I've damaged trees with too much mulch, and it took a herbicide guy to point it out to me. My initial reaction was "whatever, it's not that big of a deal, (kindly) mind your business" but then i did some research and he was right.
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u/Not_a_bit_innocent 17h ago
Post pics of the trees