Putting hosta bed under dogwoods?

10 years ago

We have two dogwoods in the backyard. Planted by a previous homeowner, so they are at least 8 years old but could be a few years older. Their trunks are about 4 inches wide and they are about 10 and 12 feet tall, they are in a mostly shade area--shade of the house until early afternoon, then some sun and then the shade of a very mature maple tree.

The dogwoods theoretically have grass growing under them, but due to the dry shade and dog traffic, it's not super healthy or dense. These trees have looked stressed and mangy since the day we moved in, which I have attributed to the rock-hard dryish and darkish area they are planted in. One of them usually has about 20 flowers, the other has about thirty in a good year.

Anyway, my little dog recently passed away and we buried her between these two trees. I'd like to make a kind of raised hosta bed by surrounding both trees together with stones, adding soil and compost and planting hostas.

I don't want to kill the trees, and in fact I thought this might help them by providing a mulch for the roots and getting dog traffic off of the area, as well as by getting them extra water when I water the hostas.

Advice for whether I can do this without making life harder for the dogwoods?

Featured Answer

rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7

10 years ago

last modified: 10 years ago

Well, there's little that is more beneficial for trees and their root systems than a two to three inch layer of loose mulch on top of the bare soil. HOWEVER, they don't like being covered with several inches of stuff like soil, nor do they tolerate having a large portion of their roots disturbed.

That being said, you can interplant a few small hosta plants and allow them to grow amongst the dogwood roots, where with the mulch and watering everything should be fine.

Just remember that dogwoods have shallow roots and you need to protect them, and not cause injury by adding layers of extra soil and excess mulch, or by planting a large number of perennials into that fragile root zone.

Some years ago, the year after we moved into this house, we added a generously sized swath of wood chips to a pitiful, scraggly redbud that had been planted by the previous owner. That's all, just mulch.

The next season it produced so much new, healthy growth that it was astonishing to behold! That was the root system telling us "Thank You". ;-)

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Comments (14)

edlincoln
10 years ago
Most trees don't like having ANY dirt or compost around their trunks. Building this raised bed around either of the dogwood would at the very least make life much harder for the dogwoods. It runs the risk of suffocating the roots or causing rot.

You could build such a bed between the dogwoods or next to them but not touching the trunks. In the short term it would make life harder for the trees by suffocating part of the roots, but eventually new roots would spread into the improved soil of the raised bed.
maggiepatty thanked edlincoln
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mad_gallica (z5 Eastern NY)
10 years ago
Forget the raised bed, and put the hostas in the ground, then mulch. The concept of watering hostas, but not dogwoods is beyond me, but that is a different matter.
rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7
10 years ago
Maggie, we three are pretty much saying the same thing but in different ways. No raised bed.
maggiepatty thanked rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7
Logan L Johnson
10 years ago
No raised bed as stated above. Dogwoods (at least mine) adapt well to underplantings. I would think they could be underplanted with hostas as long as you are careful when digging. I have bearded irises under mine.
maggiepatty thanked Logan L Johnson
kitasei
10 years ago
Of all the groundcovers I know, geranium maculatum lies the lightest on land..
maggiepatty
Original Author
10 years ago
Thank you all. I got it--put the hostas directly in the ground, ideally without chopping into the dogwoods' roots, and give the area a light mulch, not a heavy layer of built-up soil.

I will do as you suggest. The ground is so very hard at this time of year that I dread trying to dig holes for the hostas, but I will give it my best. It did sound temptingly easier to build up than dig down, but I don't want to hurt the trees.
Logan L Johnson
10 years ago
Make sure the mulch isn't touching the tree trunk
maggiepatty thanked Logan L Johnson
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
10 years ago
the hosta forum is one of the most active... duplicate the post there.. to see if anyone there grows under DW ...

anyone.. do dogwood have shallow fibrous ..... mat like roots????

be nice to know where you are .... there is no reason.. the hosta have to go in now.. but you could work on bed development.. kill the grass ... add 3 or 4 inches of mulch ... so it will settle to 2 to 3 ... and i bet by spring.... the soil will be friable ... loose and fluffy .... work smart.. rather than hard ....

ken
maggiepatty thanked ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
Logan L Johnson
10 years ago
Dogwood does have roots close to the surface, so you must really watch when digging. The hostas will easily grow under dogwoods, I have some under a redbud, which produces similar shade and growth habit.
maggiepatty thanked Logan L Johnson
maggiepatty
Original Author
10 years ago
Yeah, I am not going to put them in right now, it is too hot and the ground is fried even in the shade. Stressful for the trees, the hostas, and for me.

I'm in Zone 6 central Kentucky, and we had a very wet July so we are not in a drought, but things got very crispy very fast in late August.
Logan L Johnson
10 years ago
No rain here since early august. No drought has been officially declared, but it ideally would have been weeks ago. It seems like no matter how much I water, it just doesn't provide enough for the plants.
cearbhaill (zone 6b Eastern Kentucky)
10 years ago
last modified: 10 years ago
Hostas grow just fine under dogwoods. I would start with smaller plants so you don't have to dig such a large hole, but they will do great.

When we moved into our property I found a very struggling, sickly, bent and horribly deformed looking dogwood growing behind an old hickory. When the hickory came out for unrelated reasons I made it my project to rehab the dogwood. Here nine years later the tree is straight, healthy, and gorgeous- they respond quite well to care. Care I define as water during droughts (and dry spells) plus a bit of mulch, and I do throw some HollyTone around each spring.

I have other pre-existing C. florida dogwoods on the property, plus multiple alternifolia and kousas I have added myself. All have hostas underneath and everything works well together. I do supplement water regularly.
maggiepatty thanked cearbhaill (zone 6b Eastern Kentucky)
maggiepatty
Original Author
10 years ago
Thank you, cearbhaill. I have to be frugal with my water for monetary reasons, so my usual routine is only to provide supplemental water while things are becoming established, the first year or two. However, since this usually leads to my garden looking pretty depressing by late July, and as some of my long-showering children have grown up and moved out, I was thinking of doing more watering next year. I was planning a soaker hose for my fenceline of flowering shrubs and perennials, and I can add a weekly soak for these dogwoods, too. I am glad to hear they may not always look so scrappy.