Thinking about removing these two elevated flower beds and just planting some grass or some putting some rock for a picnic table. They are in disrepair and usually just hold weeds in the summer anyhow. Former owners were retired and had time for that kind of stuff. My question is will removing about a foot of dirt around both trees kill them this spring or shorten their life span? Any one have experience with this? I believe they are Siberian elms. Thank you.
Kinda looks like they were buried and weren't affected by it. As long as the root flare isn't damaged removing the soil, what the worst that happens ? Firewood ?
Gavorosalini Siberian Elms are terrible trees to have in your yard. At least around these parts. Very brittle wood. Any snow load and branches are breaking off. All kinds of a messy tree. To address your question. To start I don't have experience removing dirt from around a trees base. Gonna do it to some oaks on my property to kinda "clean up" a little. I always have thought that adding dirt around a trees base could cause it to die. Something about the bark "breathing" at the dirt level on some species. If you cover up this "breathing zone" the tree can die. Just certain species. Others with adapt just fine. Only thing with removing dirt, in my head, would be the potential for the tree to tip over easier. I suppose that would depend on when those beds were installed around the trees originally or were the trees planted in the beds and let grow? Also depends how many roots and what size you dig out while removing the flower beds.
Go ahead and remove. Possible that the stems have sent out roots into that dirt, but the tree won't rely on them structurally.
