oh no tell me this is ok....

my husband rented an edge trimmer and in his enthusiasm he edged around two ash trees...right around the drip line....please tell me the surface roots of these trees will be ok...I'm afraid now to leave the house in fear for my maples....he said it "only cuts a few inches deep."

Most trees are able to replace feeder roots that have been damaged. I would keep them well watered this summer and not fertilize until they have had sufficient time to heal any cut roots and grow some new ones.

oh my god he told me he's been "edging" them with a shovel every year....this time he used a power edger....I don't understand why he doesn't just leave them alone!

If my hubby did that to my trees, we'd have to come to an "understanding" :-} I wouldn't want any of my trees messed with like that unless there was a REAL good reason. Did he say why he feels he has to do this?

Some men need to "control" the garden. Sounds like your husband is one of those. My father was like that. His theory was that if it's green, cut it off. Ask your husband how in control he'll feel if the trees come down on the house in a storm because he's severed their anchors.

lol oh my gosh my husband is the most laid back man...he's a little lawn-obsessed though, he was trying to keep everything looking neat. He didn't know the damage he was doing....he promised to leave them alone! Ironically, these trees were pretty mature when we put them in, and I knew they'd take years to get over the transplant shock, and here he is using the edger on them! He cut me a new garden bed, so I forgave him :) I planted my weeping norway spruce in it already. I'm tree-obsessed, our yard was part of a tobacco field and there wasn't a tree in sight, so I spent a lot of money & time getting trees in here. I don't care for lawns, they are too high maintenance and I'm totally against fertilizer. Can lawn & trees live together peacefully?

LOL Lynnie, I understand where you're coming from! After we built our house, I had 5 acres of nothing but dirt to try to get landscaped. I did put out grass seed but I love trees too. I've planted over 100 in the last 4 1/2 years and, so far, they are living very peacefully with my lawn. I figure if the grass can't survive under my trees, I'll just put some type of ground cover that can tolerate the shade. Less mowing and fertilizer is a good thing :-}

I'm with both of you. I've been working on landscaping our new Florida home - which was ALL lawn - for four years. Each year, there is less and less grass. My goal it to path a bath of grass wide enough to drive the SUV clear around the house (slightly bigger in the middle of the front yard) and that's it.That means I want to take out approximately 80-85% of the original lawn.I've got slightly below 60% out now.

Bet it's going to look gorgeous when you get done DBauer!

I was out yesterday watering everything...crazy 90 degree weather....then we had some high wind gusts....one of the rain barrels blew away! I have to see if everything is still standing. Naturelover I hope the anchor roots on those trees are intact lol that power edger is a serious piece of equipment.
Dbauer I have 5 planting beds and still too much lawn....your place must be beautiful, do you have any pictures?

I wondered about pictures too DBauer. Sounds like you're farther along with your "degrassing" project than Lynnie and me. I still have such a long way to go but at least I enjoy the process. Lynnie, I think if your hubby will leave your trees alone they will be alright. Since he's made an edge line around your trees, you could try mixing up some Super Thrive and water it in where he made the edge openings. It's not a fertilizer--it's a mix of hormones and vitamins that helps a lot with transplant shock. I find it at Wal Mart here but I've noticed a lot of other places are starting to carry it now. It comes in a small bottle but it only takes a very small amount mixed with water to get the job done. I use it all the time and it makes a big difference. I hope your trees live. I know all about babying things along--we put our hearts into all our plants, don't we :-}

Do you have any problem with the emerald ash borer? In MI it's a big problem. We've had all our ashes injected for the last 3 yrs. So far so good.

Oh no, I don't THINK we have borers! These ash trees were very mature when we got them, about 20 years old (a friend bought land that was a former tree farm, with all these trees, a hundred trees) so we hired a guy to move 4 ash trees to our tree-less yard, with a tree spade. I knew these trees would take years to recover, but I was pretty excited (I had read for every inch in diameter of tree trunk, it takes a year)...so I was thinking 6 years at least. So 2 years later we were on vacation, we come home, 2 of the big ash trees are on their sides, roots pulled up and everything. The neighbor tells us we had a microburst in our yard (like a mini tornado) and it ripped up the trees. We use a truck and rope & the three of us re-planted them (about a foot away from where they started, we had to dig a hole & just push them in with the truck...) these trees were framing the house, left & right toward the front.So it was the 2 trees in the back that survived the microburst only to get edged by the Mad Tiller over here.... and this year was it, this is the year they're leafing out....they're finally starting to look good! I f I saw borer damage I'd go crazy for sure lol but they are way too big for me to even see that. The trunks look fine, I don't see any marks or holes on them or anything...

oh Naturelover thanks for the suggestion, I'll try to find some of that Super Thrive this weekend!

Gosh, you said they were big but I didn't realize they are 20+- year old trees! Y'all have really done a lot of hard work to get them in place. I sure do hope they all make it! ROFL--tell your Mad Tiller to go find some bare ground to work on and leave your trees alone!