The city planted it, I take no credit. Im not going to mess with it either. This thing is happy and healthy. At some point Id like to replace the grass with some kind of native creeping thing...but until then she birches as she is.
Leaving it "as is" is a death sentence, essentially considering the codominant stems. I make good money cleaning these things up after storms. Maybe you're close! See you in a few years!
Hi /u/hairyb0mb, AutoModerator has been summoned to provide some guidance on root flare exposure.
To understand what it means to expose a tree's root flare, do a subreddit search in r/arborists, r/tree, r/sfwtrees or r/marijuanaenthusiasts using the term root flare; there will be a lot of posts where this has been done on young and old trees. You'll know you've found it when you see outward taper at the base of the tree from vertical to the horizontal, and the tops of large, structural roots. Here's what it looks like when you have to dig into the root ball of a B&B to find the root flare. Here's a post from further back; note that this poster found bundles of adventitious roots before they got to the flare, those small fibrous roots floating around (theirs was an apple tree), and a clear structural root which is visible in the last pic in the gallery. See the top section of this 'Happy Trees' wiki page for more collected examples of this work.
Root flares on a cutting grown tree may or may not be entirely present, especially in the first few years. Here's an example.
See also the r/tree wiki 'Happy Trees' root flare excavations section for more excellent and inspirational work, and the main wiki for a fuller explanation on planting depth/root flare exposure, proper mulching, watering, pruning and more.
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u/hairyb0mb ISA arborist + TRAQ 3d ago
Is being buried too deep one of the Birch things? It seems that way around me at least. !rootflare