Mulch volcanoes stretch from the innocuous to the absurd, and this one produced a classic Batman moment.
"When will this madness end?" a Redditor wrote in the summer, sharing a photo of a pine tree that featured mulch piled perhaps four feet up the trunk. "Holy mulch volcano!"
"Sad part, is that this was an entire neighborhood," the poster added. "Probably a HOA. I'm sure they probably paid 100k for one landscape company to install all these trees. Sucks they paid so much to people who f***** it all up. Also not to mention they all are planted CRaZY high. Legit looks like the didn't even dig a hole, just set the tree on the ground and covered with mulch."
One commenter detailed the problems with these mulch volcanoes.
"The root flare typically needs to be exposed," they wrote. "Mulching all the way up to the trunk creates a moist, and protected place for disease organisms to live up close to the bark, it also can provide homes for burrowing mammals, trees will sometimes send roots out into the mulch. Mulch should be more spread out around the tree."
Proper mulching leads to healthy trees, and healthy trees lead to healthy environments and healthy people. Trees absorb and store carbon dioxide and even improve mental and physical health, according to The Nature Conservancy.
Two trees can remove a metric ton of carbon dioxide equivalent from the atmosphere over their 100-year lifespan, the National Forest Foundation states.
Some commenters referenced their own experiences with the perplexing landscaping practice.
One noted it was deployed by a well-known company in one of the largest cities in the country.
"The well known landscaping company doesn't know anything about tree health then," one user said in response. "I feel bad for their customers."
Another user wrote: "I believe landscapers do this on purpose so they get called back to replace the trees in 2-3 years. It's constant revenue for them. If they were to do it correctly, they would never return. The landscaping company and the HOA's both make money from the constant replacement of trees at the expense of the homeowners."
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