New homeowner concerned after making a bizarre discovery in their backyard: 'This struck me as very weird'

Whenever you buy a new home, you inevitably discover a few odd quirks about the property after you move in. That was the case with one Redditor who shared something strange they found in their new backyard. 

"We just bought a house and there is a fairly large tree in the backyard and I just noticed that there is concrete poured around the entire base of it," they wrote under a collection of pictures. "This struck me as very weird."

The new homeowner went to the r/gardening subreddit to ask for advice on this bizarre discovery. "Is this tree being held up by concrete??! Does anyone have any insight into this or have seen it before?" they asked. 

The pictures show the base of a tree surrounded by the hard, gray material, and one photo looking straight up at the tall, healthy-looking tree. 

While it's obviously not ideal, it's certainly not the only case of concrete surrounding a tree. As one commenter pointed out, in cities, trees are often planted amongst streets and sidewalks. 

"The trees and concrete sidewalks battled for years with the trees ultimately winning," the Redditor said about their neighborhood.

The ideal situation for the base of a tree is to spread out a few inches of mulch that covers a four to five-foot diameter around the trunk — just make sure the mulch isn't piled up next to the tree. You don't want a "mulch volcano" killing your tree, which is a very common mistake. 

Trees can provide so many benefits to your yard. As the Redditor pointed out, trees can supply a lot of shade to your property, and if they shade your house, it can help keep energy costs down in the summer. 

Big, healthy trees can increase the value of your property while also adding a lot of value to the ecosystem — providing food and shelter for numerous creatures. Trees are also great at pulling planet-heating carbon pollution out of the atmosphere. No wonder people like hugging them. 

Redditors in the comments agree that the tree seems healthy and doesn't appear to be in any immediate danger. However, one suggested, "You should get it broken around the trunk and removed so it won't die."

The OP commented, stating that they don't plan on disturbing it right now. "It's not posing any risk or anything it's far enough away from everything. It provides a ton of shade in the sun we've been getting so I'd hate to lose it," they added.

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