mulching of the trees

Way back early in the spring I had a very large job to tackle, mulching all(96) of the willow oaks that line the drive lane on the property. I was not looking forward to doing this for two years in a row with some extra excavating on each tree's root collar this year. Sometimes the greater force delivers and this time was one...a friend Benjamin from Sherman Chiropractic College(a recent graduate) stopped by and spent some time earning some $ and helped me with the trees. Thank you Ben.


This is what we started with, some weeds and dirt covering the 'shoulders' of the trees which "should be exposed" per Mark our personal arborist. Exposed means to dig with a hand rake and garden shovel (hand shovel) 1-5 inches into the root ball to expose the shoulders. Rake the mulch out to expand the mulched area and add additional mulch to finish new larger diameter mulched ring. And to finish spray round-up on all of the fresh mulch being careful not to spray base of freshly transplanted willow-oak trees.Here's Dr. Ben Claussen hard at it, notice the knee pads, lots of time on our knees digging.Using my trailer and the tractor to haul the mulch.Mollie and Lil' E in front of the finished product.