Mulch Volcanoes

The horticultural horrors commonly called “mulch volcanoes” and “tree moats” defy explanation. These abominable tree and shrub mulching practices can combine with other stress-related issues to wreak havoc on plant health. Of course, that’s the Grim Mulcher’s plan.

Organic mulch can provide wonderful benefits to landscape trees and shrubs as well as enhancing landscape aesthetics. Or it can slyly take the form of a horticultural horror cunningly robbing woody ornamentals of their vigor.

Mulch piled around tree trunks to stratospheric heights has been called many things (some not printable) such as pyramid mulch and mountain mulch. My personal favorites are mulch volcanoes (or volcano mulch) for stratovolcano-like creations and mulch mounds for those that resemble shield volcanoes.

Sometimes we run across bizarre things in Ohio landscapes that simply defy explanation. Such was the case yesterday when I came across "tree moats" (sometimes called "mulch moats") in a park near my home in the southwest part of the state. I've encountered this bizarre practice before and fail to fathom the logic behind this ludicrous practice.