My wife and I moved from our 100% organic property of 23 years, out into the country to a property that has not been so maintained. We have six Shumard Red Oaks that have been ringed at the base with dwarf Yaupon hollies and these big brick wall stones. Any advice on safely removing all this from the trees so I can restore them to a more natural appearance? I'm not as concerned with saving the hollies, just mainly not harming the Red Oaks.

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Bill Hurst

Well, the current arrangement isn't particularly harmful to the trees, although obviously no idea either.

It's not going to hurt any of it to just break up the brick and remove it if you need to.

As for the Holly....I don't think there's an easy way out. Cut, pull, shred. Cut them down, dig out the roots as best as you can manually. Disturbing the red oak roots a bit won't freak them out (unlinke a Post Oak) as long as you don't cut many of the Oak roots.

Are the Red Oaks healthy as they are right now?

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Shepherd of the Trees
It is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succor of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields we know so that those who live after may have clean earth to till.