Take Care When Planting Near Your Tree
One of the popular trends for gardening and adding curb appeal to your front lawn is raised garden beds. While slightly raised beds along the perimeter of your house can help protect the foundation by retaining the surrounding moisture and encouraging root growth that can hold soil in place. Raised beds around trees can be dangerous to the tree\’s health and structural stability. Here\’s how:
- Piling soil around the base of the trunk can encourage rot and decay. The moisture encourages new growth that can infect the tree; it\’s also a good environment for insects that can bore to the trunk or damage the bark. Rotting bark can also kill a tree on its own. Because the tree\’s living tissue is contained in just the surface layers of the tree, they are surprisingly fragile and susceptible to infection once rot sets in.
- Planting near a tree disturbs its root system. Even if you plant a shallow layer of flowers near the tree, digging through the soil can hurt the tree\’s roots every time you plant new flowers. Using a planter box or ringing it with stone can also weigh down and stifle the roots, which lets disease set in.
What should you do if you have a property with raised beds or plants around a tree?
The first thing you should do is call in an expert. They can evaluate the degree of damage to the root system, the trunk, and the bark. As well as give you advice about how to treat for any existing diseases. This step is especially important if you have just purchased or inherited a house with potentially damaged trees; while short-term damage might be easily treated. Pre-existing beds without a known start date can be risky for both the tree and the property next to it.
Go to Advanced Tree Care here for an inspection and for steps on how to keep your trees healthy.
Whether you have a tree that needs to be cut down soon or you have a lingering stump, you can follow along on Facebook and Instagram, or you can contact us here if you have any questions.
