personally .. i would kill the maple and the willow regardless ... both are unsuited to gardens except for parks and golf courses .. if you have a small yard .. under 5 acres .. i suggest you consider such ... especially if you ever want to garden under them ....

but lets presume you want them .... it would be a perfect time to dig and replant at the proper height ... it will be a lot of heavy back breaking work ... you would need to dig a 4 to 6 foot root mass .... and at least 3 feet deep .. figure out how to lift it out ... and then fill in the hole.. and figure out how to put them back .... it sounds a lot easier to cut them to the ground .. roundup the stump .. and spend 20 or 30 bucks on a new [and IMHO better ] tree ... and dig a small replacement hole ...

consider .. excavating a 5 foot circle and putting some bricks in ... like a backwards retaining wall ... there is a word for it.. but it escapes me ... and lower the soil inside the circle ....

good luck

ken

When were they planted?
I know, I know it says they are 3 years old but that doesn't mean they were planted 3 years ago.

Lowering the soil level and building a tree well (if that is the correct term) is a bit less effort than digging, raising and replanting your trees. BUT, if your soil is clay or doesn't drain well, you may be laying up trouble down the road a few years, with root-rot problems just the same as if you left the trees. As Ken suggested, the least expensive as far as time and physical effort is concerned (and you are looking at MAJOR physical effort to raise the trees, and the help of at least one more person, maybe two or three - I moved a 6' redbud from a friend's, with a 3-4' rootball. It took 3 men, relatively strong, to move it out of her garden, with a tarp under it, into the truck and then to the new planting spot!) is to cut down the treees, and replace them with new ones. It will cost money, however, depending on the new trees as to how much.

If you put your back out or pull a muscle doing all the moving, it may end up costing big bucks anyway.

Sorry, should have said they were planted 3 yrs. ago. The Mountain Ash was in a container from the nursery ($30 and I can't afford another one), so it could have already been a few years old. The Willow is from a cutting I rooted about 3 yrs. ago.

It might be easiest to root another willow cutting, move the M't'n Ash, and let the maple go, since you think it isn't viable anyway. Finding another maple shoud be possible, for less than $30. It's also possible, willows being what they are, that the willow will do fine, even planted too low.

If you keep them watered, you could even just stick a few willow branches in the dirt where you want a weeping willow, and select for the nicest one if more than one roots for you. If you did this near the "parent", you could then remove that, with a replacement waiting in the wings, as it were.

Three years is not that long for a potted tree to be planted. Unless you have the greatest well draining soil, and you fertilized the Mountain Ash well each year, then the root ball is most likely still pretty much in tack and still easiest enough to remove.

A storm broke a friend's 5 or 6 year planted maple tree. It broke about 4 feet up in the middle of the trunk. When he dug around it and pulled the trunk out of the ground with a wench it certainly was amazing how compact the root ball still was.

I had another friend whose October Glory Maple had been planted 2 1/2 years before it died in last summer's drought. I dug it up so we could replace it with some ornamental 'Corinthian Pink' peach trees. It was a 9 feet tall tree with a 3 inch diameter trunk, and it still had such a small root ball that I got the tree out of the hole by my self with little effort.

For the Ash tree, and if you only planted it no more that 3 inches too deeply, I would suggest you pull away all the dirt from over the rootball; stopping once you can see the root fair. Next remove the grass from around the tree for a distance of about 2 feet out. Then at the edge of the grass free bed dig out the soil until the bed's edge is 3 inches lower than the root flare of the tree. scrape out the dirt starting a little away from the root fair to gradually slant down until it reaches the edge of your bed; once there, simply level the lowest edge of your slant even with the depth of which you dug the trench around the bed's edge.

Finally Fill the bed with enough shredded mulch to fill the trenched out edge of the bed only to the height which makes the bed's edge to look level with the rest of the yard. Make certain that the shredded mulch which you apply to the sloping bed is kept at least 4 inches away from the tree's root flair.

If you planted the tree way too deep for it to begin growing again after installing the above mentioned bed method, it probably will survive long enough for you to wait and dig up the tree after it goes dormant. That way you will not have to remove so much dirt with the roots.

If you choose to move the Ash tree when it is dormant, then wait until mid-Summer to take a spade and slice through the roots all around at about 3 to 4 feet away from the tree's trunk.

Then at least once, each following month, repeat that step again in the very same place you first cut the roots with the spade.

Once the tree has gone dormant remove as much dirt as possible that is on top of the root flair and from on top of the roots all around; out to where you kept spade cutting the roots during the end of summer and early fall. After that, start near where you spade cut the roots, use a garden pitchfork to help lift out the tree's surface feeder roots. Keep doing that until you are close to the, most likely, still intact root ball; which orginally came out of the pot when you first planted the tree.

Once you have reached that spot all the way around the tree, simply use the pitch fork to pry up the rootball. If need be you can cut any roots which are at least 18 inches or more below the root ball. but try to keep intact as many of the closer to the surface growing feeder roots. As long as you are doing this when the tree is dormant, you can lift the tree out of the soil and brush away as much dirt as possible from the tree's roots. That way the tree should not be too heavy to handle. Then you can replant the tree properly where ever you desire, Or you could even set the tree back in the same spot it was growing before, and fill in with good garden soil around and on top of the feeder roots, being certain to keep the root flair just visible above the added soil level.

Pound 3 of the larger 6 foot tall metal "t" stakes into the ground at no more than 2 feet distance away from the trunk of the tree. Tie the tree to the stakes with thickly coated and cushioned tree tie wire, or other such non damaging ties. Make certain the ties are taut enough to keep the tree stable in the ground, but also, just loose enough that the tree can sway slightly when winds blow against its canopy.

Those stakes will need to remain for 3 full years, but after each of those years you can loosen the tension in the ties just enough each time to let the tree sway just a little more when the wind blows against it.

If your lot is big enough, follow dibbits advice for the Willow tree; then dig up the Maple tree you think will not survive. Replace the maple, if you have the space, with a properly planted hardwood sugar maple, or other such quality tree.

Kim said the trees were 4-6' high. They can't have a very extensive root ball at that height, can they? I've transplanted taller trees with little difficulty.

Thank you all for such wonderful input! I've printed out the most helpful information and also have some pix to take to the nursery where I bought the Mountain Ash...I suspect that's the only one that wasn't actually planted too deep. The maple is history, and I'll be taking some cuttings of the Willow. Thanks so much!!