by Connie Oswald Stofko
We don’t have the kind of volcanoes that spew hot rocks out of a mountain, but we do have volcanoes in Western New York that can damage your trees: volcanoes made of mulch.
Mulch volcanoes are those cone-shaped piles of mulch at the base of trees.
Many gardeners like how the mulch volcanoes look, but they are actually bad for the trees.
Check out our previous article on mulch volcanoes to find out why you shouldn’t use mulch volcanoes and how you can properly mulch around a tree.
Hi Patricia, I think the information in the previous article will help you. There’s a video that shows a tree that was surrounded by too much mulch. When the mulch was removed, roots were exposed. You can see what they did. Note it’s important to allow the trunk to flare out; the flare shouldn’t be covered with soil. Keep the mulch two or three inches away from the trunk.
I know to not create a volcano, but what do I do when you can see the roots around the base of the tree? The tree people told me to add 3 or 4 inches of soil, then mulch, but that brings the level up on the tree trunk.
Hi Jed, I agree that it seems that more and more people are creating mulch volcanoes, which are unnatural. But of course, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
I have noticed over the past few weeks the number of mulch volcanoes has actually been increasing despite the campaign to stop doing it. I have no idea why people would like to do this to a tree, if anything I find them quite ugly and unnatural!