Here you go I had the same problem with pictures, need to use the HTLM Code. md Here

the slack lines indicate it is doing nothing ... it was a large transplant.. and it was done to insure it remained upright ... and after 2 years.. it should be all set ... the wounds at your pix are healing.. i would ignore them ... though i wight flake off some of the bark toward the interior of the wound.. to insure there are not bugs in there ... do NOT further injure the callousing .... if that is the right term ... its getting near time.. to raise that canopy a bit ... so peeps on the sidewalk can walk by w/o injury ... i dont know about the timing of such for your oak.. in your area ... ken

This is very common in subdivisions. For a particular tree, there is no remedy except a one-inch heading cut and replacement. The first picture I agree the plant is too deep. No remedy. Very common. Your builder cut corners. Sorry. The second picture shows no ill plant health at a distance. What it does show is inadequate space for these plants. There is no remedy except a one-inch heading cut and replacement. I also, in the foto, don't see a sidewalk on your side. Putting aside my urban planner lectures on why this is bad, this is an indicator of cutting corners, as is the pavement quality and rolled curb job (from here, their engineer failed to slope the grade adequately for anything greater than 5-yr precip) . Your side setback is still inadequate for these trees (shame on the city's planners). Nonetheless, this is still an indicator of fill and little if any OM, indicated by the lawn health. At least the spp. selection is OK I doubt you want to get a bobcat in there and fix the initial oversight. The alternative is to deal with it, as fert for trees is not a good way to spend your money. I suspect the second-hand trees and limited root growth are problematic and the remedies are in the 4 figures. The externalities are low now, but costs accrue yearly and the amortization has a high percentage. Dan

Lou thanks for contributing the compost information. I know that Cornmeal is very effective when applied to the 'Palmetto' St Augustine grass. My son inlaw tried the fertilizer chemicals the first year, and was not very happy with the result, The next fall the Cornmeal applied like you suggested and horse manure compost applied later showed a dramatic improvement over the chemical fertilizer/weed killer he used first. The virgin clay soil that was on the lot where my daughter's house was build was nearly white hardpan. And then I saw that their builder only layed down sand as a topsoil. That really stressed me, because I know the light color I saw in her clay soil must indicate that it must be nearly void of humus and also void of many important nutrients that trees and shrubs need. Because of that we made the landscaping beds with well processed horse manure compost, and when he applied that same compost and at the right time put down the cornmeal, my son-in-law ended up with one of the nicest looking yards and landscaping on the block. Too bad they moved back to OK the next year, and no longer can enjoy that. I say that, because now most of the yards in our area are full of that horrible weed called bermuda grass. Too bad the 'Palmetto' ST Augustine grass is not hardy enough for our borderline USDA Zone 6b/7a I have a friend who's Bermuda grass is worse than mine at invading, and even after we covered some of her lawn, for a new landscaping bed, with black plastic for 6 weeks in the hottest part of the summer, the Bermuda's roots still are not killed. We looked under the plastic this week and saw lots of thick white roots with hints of green barely showing. What a pain. I just simply hate Bermuda grass. The only good thing; is that even if it goes dormant in a drought most Bermuda will not die out, and in the next warm rainy season it flourishes again. For Lawns that is great. For Landscape beds that is nothing more than a huge weedy burden. Now, for my friend's new landscape bed, I know of no other choice than to spray the area with a grass root killer that will not harm the roses and thornless dwarf hawthorn tree and some shrubs we want to plant next week in that new bed. As far as my above advice to Mike, I did not want to advise him to make the soil in his oak tree's bed extra fertile until he gets his bermuda roots under control. If he does make the tree's bed nice and fertile before then, with the organic stuff you mentioned, The Bermuda will simply send down even deeper roots and take a stronger hold in the bed, resulting in the roots stealing most of those composted organic nutrients away from the tree's rootball. Since the tree is already stressed, many pests which drop and spend the winter in the soil do not like the oils in cedar. That is why I suggested Mike use it. Not so much to break down and feed the tree, but to instead help retain soil moisture, and to retard the pests which otherwise might want to emerge from the soil and attack this tree that is currently struggling to establish. Mike, once your bermuda is under better control, then by all means do all you can to follow Lou's advice on the organic spreads. And when your tree is more healthy, you can begin to use the faster breaking down mulches Lou mentioned, because by then the health of the tree should help discourage more of such opportunist pests from rushing in.