A homeowner in the Sierra Nevada posted a photo in a subreddit for tree enthusiasts showing a sweetgum tree they had planted.
While they were likely hoping for compliments and acknowledgment of all their hard work, they got a torrent of (to be fair, well-deserved) criticism instead.
"Sweetgum in the Ground. I raised this baby tree from a seedling when I lived in the central California valley," the original poster wrote. "Four years later, feet in the earth in the Sierra Nevada. Necessarily armored against deer, hares, rabbits, and voles. Planted on shale bedrock."
The accompanying photo showed a photo of a sweetgum sapling planted in the middle of a mulch volcano, with a bunch of seemingly loose rocks dumped in front of it, and, most surprisingly, surrounded by a small moat filled with water.
The other members of the r/marijuanaenthusiasts subreddit — a humorously named forum dedicated to normal trees, not cannabis — were less than impressed.
"Boy that looks like a hell of a lot of work to do something very, very wrong," one commenter wrote.
"Such a labor intensive way to kill a tree…" another wrote.
"I'm sure there's already a bunch of comments pointing out everything wrong with this but I still just can't wrap my mind around how this tree is going to grow roots...between the hardware cloth, the gravel, and the mound..I'm at a loss," another commenter wrote.
"Not sure 'in the ground' is the way I would describe it….. good luck with that," yet another chimed in.
The comments went on and on.
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Mulch volcanoes — the practice of piling mulch high around the base of a tree, ostensibly to protect it — is an upsettingly commonplace phenomenon, even among many professional landscapers.
Instead of protecting the tree, mulch volcanoes tend to confuse tree roots into growing upward and around the trunk while dampening the bark and allowing fungus, rot, and insects to damage it.
The moat is another thing entirely — one that the members of the subreddit hadn't seen before and were likely hoping to never see again.
As a general rule, when planting trees, you want to allow the tree's roots access to healthy, fertile soil. Though the original poster here seems to have gone to great lengths to avoid that, the massive amount of criticism they induced could encourage them to change a few of their planting practices.
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