Heart of the Garden

I’d like to know who was the first person to start the trend of piling mulch so high up a tree trunk it looks like it’s growing out of an inner tube. Where in nature do you see bits of chopped up tree neatly piled in perfect circles?

If you want to attract termites and all manner of wood-eaters, by all means, pile the mulch up to the highest leaf. This mulch pile sprouted a lovely patch of slime mold, which I admit, I find fascinating. Back in the day, my sister and I had a freakish fixation on slime mold. After school each day for a month, she hosed down the porch in hopes it would cultivate a crop of slime mold.