A recent Reddit post could have represented a fantastic "before and after," if only their trees had been planted properly.

After two years of construction, a user shared a picture of a newly built house with the members of r/landscaping, highlighting a front yard where what was once just mud became home to an attractive display of colorfully leafed trees. 

But while the result is a pleasant sight, some users voiced concerns about their installation.

"The tree police will not like the mulch volcanoes around the trees. It leads to girdling and will eventually kill the tree," one warned, adding that their own father had experienced it.

"I tried to talk the homeowner out of this but this is the look he insisted he wanted," the original poster replied. "Whoever drew up the final landscaping plan was clearly not a landscaper."

"Tell [the homeowner] his vibe is off, you'll cleanse it by properly mulching his trees," a third joked in response to the original poster attributing the mulch volcanoes to the owner's tendency to be "all about the vibe."

Creating a massive mound of mulch at the base of a tree in the shape of a volcano is a popular landscaping practice, but it traps moisture around the trunk and root flare, which eventually can cause the tree to break down.

Mulching trees itself is good — but there is a right way to do it, the municipality of Princeton explains on its website. 

"The best [mulching] shape is a donut that keeps mulch several inches away from the base of the tree to avoid rot and diseases but encourages moisture to enter the root system," it read.

There's an even better route to keeping trees healthy — and to save time and money — by using grass clippings or fallen leaves for this purpose.

What is your least favorite lawn chore? Mowing the grass 🌱 Blowing leaves 🍁 Blowing snow ☃️ Something else 🤔 Click your choice to see results and speak your mind.

Better still is the option of installing native plants, which are known to be suitable for the local climate and soil conditions and, therefore, require less maintenance. 

All efforts toward rewilding your yard — even small patches of it — are welcome to insect pollinators, which will help create a balanced ecosystem and, in turn, protect our own food supplies.

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