Dogwood Hedge

In ground wicking bed style dogwood hedge in Calgary.

completed dogwood hedge

The dogwood hedge along the new patio.  Advantage was taken of the drainage for the back patio.  The entire patio area drains toward this hedge.  Using the principles of wicking beds, the water runs under the hedge watering it deeply.  The excess water continues through the pipe and out to a catchment.

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All the water from the back patio runs into the drainage grate.   Then it flows out to the front of the house.  A drainage catchment was built, and the water then filters into the ground.

dogwood hedge drainage pipe wrapped

Rather than lining the bottom of the ditch we wrapped the weeping tile in filter cloth to keep the roots of the dogwoods out of the pipe. Also we didn’t line the bottom with plastic as we wanted to give the water all the chances it can have to filter into the soil.

dogwood hedge drainage grate and fill pipe

This shows the connection from the drainage grate to the wicking bed weeping tile.

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Piping all in and covered with drainage rock. ready for soil..

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These dogwoods all lost a lot of their leaves after we planted them. I believe they got “overspray” from the city spraying for weeds as they came from an open air nursery. After a prune, and some time, they all came back again.