Don't pile mounds of mulch around trees Instead of harming your
trees with mulch volcanoes or cones, follow these mulch basics.
Ah, fall is in the air, along with the stench of shredded
hardwood mulch newly laid on top of soil. Mulch volcanoes won't
be far behind.Skip to next paragraph Subscribe Today to the
Monitor Soon, landscapes across the fair metropolis will be
marked by the mounds of mulch at the foot of hapless trees. They
will rise 9, 12, even 18 inches above the base of each trunk.
Some call these hills volcanoes, cones, even turtle mounds. I
think of the tree as a fat candle stuck in a cupcake. Whatever
you name them, the experts have been railing against mulch
volcanoes for decades. They stress and kill trees in so many
ways. Still they come. "Monkey see, monkey do," said Frank
Gouin, a retired professor of horticulture, explaining why they
persist. He first raised the alarm about mulch volcanoes and
America's addiction to excessive mulching as far back as the
mid-1970s, when he announced that "ov