ing, learn the correct method and monitor the actual planting. Trees can be pricey and a lifelong responsibility for care. Check with your local nurseries or the resources below for best planting practices.

Tree mulch should not be piled too high (often called volcano mulch), which doesn’t allow for proper air and water penetration. Also keep mulch directly away from the trunk so it’s not a place for insects to hide. Too much water close to the trunk may lead to rot.

Adding mulch for a finished look to landscape plantings and borders can be beautiful and healthy for cooling plant roots on hot days, while keeping weeds at bay. Mulch choices include shredded bark, chunk bark, bark chips and arborist chips. If you would rather use rock, there is pea gravel, river rock, cobble and stones.

Think twice about installing landscape fabric under mulch everywhere in a landscape. Weeds will return in a year or two and become more difficult to pull the longer they are left to grow in the fabric. Plus the soil underneath fabric becomes hard-packed and doesn’t allow plant roots to move deeper in the soil; they stay closer to the surface in desperate need and search for space, air and moisture.

Below are some common landscape oops and suggestions for mending. Both examples show plantings too close to the house and much too large for the location. Either live with it, replace it with smaller, more appropriate plantings or move it.

Tree planting don’ts

• Seeing a tree with so much visible twine is not only incorrect planting, but also sad. If a tree has dead branches and stressed needles, the only solution is to remove it and plant another tree nearby correctly.

• Burlap should be removed as much as possible after the rootball is placed correctly in the planting hole. Don’t place mulch too close to the trunk plant the root flare too deeply.

• Avoid volcano mulch around trees which prevents air and water from reaching the roots.

• Weeds still find borders and beds with landscape fabric, so avoid using it. A 2-3 inch mulch application helps keep weeds down and are much easier to pull. Plant roots will be much happier than being smothered by fabric.

Landscapes will never be perfect yet there’s always room for improvement. Enjoy the process and keep on keeping on.

Resources

Landscape Fabric: A Cautionary Tale gardenprofessors.com

Mulches for Home Grounds: extension.colostate.edu

Selecting, Planting and Caring for Trees csfs.colostate.edu

Betty Cahill Betty Cahill speaks and writes about gardening in the Rocky Mountain Region.