Nancy T

Ok Steven and Thank You. I was just thinking of adding some soil because there is still a lot of tree mulch mixed in to the soil from when they ground down the stump. But maybe I can save myself some money and like you said just remove some of the tree roots.

My Lavender bushes are all leaning and the branches are kind of smashed and growing sideways from all the snow being piled up on them all winter. It doesn't look like they will straighten up on their own. Should I trim them? and if so, when?

Could it be Cytospora canker fungus?. I just lost 5 Colorado Blue Spruce do to same situation in your photo. In doing research including speaking to an arborist: Colorado Blue Spruce are not native to Michigan and believe it or not our summers sometimes get too warm for them so this fungus can flourish especially when heat dries them out. It spreads through the air and with the rain so not much we can do about it. The die-back starts from the bottom and goes up. There is no spray for this. It weakened my trees so bad that with that past November wind storm around Thanksgiving, several were uprooted. Now my once total shade garden, is now full sun! I had to take 5 of them down, and 3 more which line my driveway, are on their way out. They were around 45 yrs old, so age too figures into the weakened state so the fungus can more readily take over. So sad. I miss my mighty giants.

In early Dec 2013 we lost a 40 ft tall Colorado Blue Spruce. It was taken down and stump ground. I would like to plant a whipcord arborvitae in this spot. If I build up the soil about 6 inches and then don't plant directly on top of the old stump, but rather a couple feet next to it, will this work ok? Or should I wait a few years for roots of former tree to deteriorate before I plant ?

This was taken on the Ridge Trail at Ludington State Park last August. My 7 year old grandson initiated the stance because he said that "he could make a face to look just like this tree". Good try Mason!