Emergency mulching

I had become to suspect that some of my trees had died. After some discussion on various forums, I decided to have a closer look at the victims.

Whilst looking down the tube showed no growth, taking the tube off revealed a small amount of growth from the base of the tree (all alder, so far):

A barely living alder

To try and remedy this, I ripped out all the grass and weeds that were growing around the stem and shading it out. I then laid these down around the stem, making sure to keep the new growth uncovered. The tube is then replaced to hold the mulch in place and marked with a flag so I can keep tabs on it.

Can you see the flag?

Unfortunately, some of the trees that had been showing great growth have been attacked by some beastie and are now looking a bit sorry for themselves. This wild cherry, for example: