I put a bricks-and-straw mulch ring around my two maples last October and the water bill dropped $19

Charlie Sanchez · 2026-11-13T04:30:08.076396+00:00

Last October I got tired of watching runoff pour down my driveway every time I watered the two maples in my front yard, so I tried a mulch ring made of straw and old bricks I pulled out of the alley behind my place in Fort Wayne. Took me about 3 hours on a Saturday and I figured it would just stop the mud. What surprised me is that by March my water bill had dropped 19 bucks compared to the same stretch last winter, and those maples came back leafing out about a week before the neighbor's tree across the street. The trick was leaving a small gap right at the trunk and mounding it a couple inches high at the outer edge so the water pools instead of running off. I know one tree and one winter is not proof of much, but I'm thinking about doing the same thing around the two oaks in back. Anyone here tried this and had it backfire, like soggy roots or bugs moving in? I want to hear the bad side before I go buying more straw.

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I put a bricks-and-straw mulch ring around my two maples last October and the water bill dropped $19 | Climate Action - The Community Guide