Hi Kept,
I noticed that you are new to this forum ~ welcome, you can find some incredible information here and there are some truly wonderful people that post some great advice here. With that said, I think that no one has responded to your post because we need more information. What zone do you live in and what state? That is really important information to anyone who wants to offer you advice. You can change your user name to include this information or edit your "My page" and list it there. The reason the state is important is that there are many areas with the same zone, with very different conditions. For example, I am in the Pacific Northwest; zone 7b, but parts of Texas is also 7b, yet heat and cold indexes are totally different.

Another tip ~ the more information you can provide to answer the obvious questions people will have, will likely result in more posts. For example: Is this area in sun or shade? You said that the dirt is dry, do you ever give the area supplemental water or is it out in the back 40 making it impossible? What kind of look do you want?

There are so many ground covers that might do a good job. I recently went to a wedding reception and the woman had planted Hosta's in a circle around the base. It was stunning.

I hope you find this information helpful. Welcome to Garden Web!

Mary

Hi Mary,
Thanks very much for the guidance. After not getting a response I planted 3 mini boxwoods under the tree. I did try hostas at one time but they did not do well due to the lack of water.
We had a terrible hard freeze the last 3 nights. What will happen to our bushes and trees that have already bloomed and started to leaf out?

Gosh, I am not a shrub expert by any means, so I do not feel qualified to answer that question. I don't have any boxwoods either (if I did I would know more), although I am considering some for a new garden area. Maybe you want to post that question on the shrub forum. The mini boxwoods may be a good asthetic choice, but depending on how large the tree is you may want to plant more than three. Posting pictures of the area would help too if you can.