Yesterday I worked around a neglected 15-year-old Italian Stone Pine at the back of the yard. With the moist soil I pulled about 4" of dirt off of the base to expose a couple of girdling roots from when it was originally in a black nursery pot. The root flare is now properly exposed. Circling roots were trimmed, and I sprinkled some fertilizer. There are several other trees that need this attention. The extra soil pulled back (making a depression around the tree about 3' across) gets moved to a garden raised bed rather than left to create a moat around the tree.

I checked my cat-sitting financed fence fund and I am situated to go ahead and purchase more cedar pickets and treated lumber cross-members for the next panel. Hopefully that purchase is later today (I haven't driven in a week so fingers crossed the SUV battery is fine after the cold.)