Beginner Gardening: mulching trees, 3 by DomesticLaura

DomesticLaura wrote:
I have a red maple that has a lot of roots coming up through the grass and the trunk has been damaged by the weed whacker so I've decided to mulch around it. My question is, should I put topsoil over the exposed roots at the base of the trunk before covering it with landscape fabric and mulch? You can see in the pictures that the base of the tree is quite a bit higher than the lawn around it. Thanks in advance for any help!