My arborist, who I hired to trim branches, was down on his hands and knees by a tree, digging around it. “What are you doing?” “I’m exposing the root flare of this tree?” “Why?” “Because the tree has a beautiful root flare. Look.”

The root flare did indeed make a very attractive pattern at the base of the tree. The tree had toes! “Look at that! Who knew?!!” “I did. I wanted to show you.”  

Around all of my trees, the grass and soil had grown over and wholly or partially obscured the root flare. I dug around the base of my other trees to expose their root flares. I love it. You might, too.

Addendum:  When is the best time to plan a tree? Twenty years ago! Second best time? Now! Then in 20 years there will be trees. Don’t wait. If you don’t plant them for yourselves, plant them for the house, for the residents over the next 100 years, for the neighborhood ambiance. Trees are good.