I bet you are an inch or two off or the tree was replanted at some time in the nursery a bit too high and an advantageous root or two started a bit up on the trunk.

Personally after a month in the ground in the heat I figure the exposed roots are cooked and your tree looks ok so they are no longer needed I would figure.

What I would do is get some mulch around that the little fella and make sure more dirt doesn't wash away.

It seems to me trees deal well with a bit of soil washing away from them. Heck, I see it all the time on trees along the big rivers here.

Good luck, good looking tree.

well.. your sure didnt err towards too deep ... lol ...

but this is not the time of year to change that .. do not dig it up in summer ...

add 2 inches of mulch.. one inch near the trunk .. and be done with it ... presuming your soil drains well.. and that the mulch will dry over time ... when you water ... do not water the mulch directly on the trunk ...

thats what i would do.. right or wrong ...

in a year or two.. you will be increasing the ring of no grass ...

ken

I would put just a tiny bit to have a place for that higher root to go into. Even if you add no soil, mulching a couple inches would help the tree, as mentioned already. Don't put up onto the trunk they say, but being planted high, some of that area is usually in dirt, so listen to Ken.

"I bet you are an inch or two off or the tree was replanted at some time in the nursery a bit too high and an advantageous root or two started a bit up on the trunk. "

The word you were looking for is "adventitious." :)