Soil Compaction

One of the leading causes of tree distress in urban environments is soil compaction.  Adding together naturally poor soil from new home construction, ground pressure from heavy riding lawn mowers and heavy foot traffic from playing children over the years and you have a recipe for impenetrable soil leading to poor root growth and decreased available soil oxygen, water and nutrient levels.

What can you do? MULCH, MULCH, MULCH! Mulching is one of the best things you can do to promote a healthy root zone. Mulch will help regulate soil temperature, retain moisture, cushion the effects of foot traffic and reduce the need to mow the lawn around the root zone.  How much mulch? 3-4 inches deep and don't let it touch the base of the tree! Too much mulch will smother the roots and mulch piled against the tree base will trap moisture against the tree and could lead to trunk decay.

Annual lawn aeration will help to loosen the top layer of soil and an annual application of deep-root fertilizer has the added benefit of helping to loosen the soil due to the hydraulic pressure created when injecting the fertilizer.