Pest battle with Dogwood — and how I won

I had a serious problem with root encroachment near drains or house foundations on my Dogwood earlier this year. Caught it late and had to work hard to bring the plant back. The experience was frustrating but educational.

Now that it's healthy again I can fully appreciate multi-decade investment that improves year on year, which is remarkable. I've repositioned it in a small garden with a compact or columnar variety chosen for scale and improved my attention to keeping a mulch-free collar immediately around the trunk. autumn colour and fruit or berry display was the proof that the plant had fully recovered — genuinely beautiful. Moral of the story: inspect regularly and catch problems early.