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Stumpery

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The neighbour who wanted the logs found that even her decent chain saw would not easily cut up the conifer stumps, so we decided to find a use for them.
If Prince Charles can have one then why not us as well? We decided to use them to make a stumpery. That is basically just a raised bed using tree stumps to hold the soil in place.

Under the big Beech tree seemed a good place for it, It does get some rain even when the tree is in full ealf

The pictures fail to show the amount of building rubble I removed to bury the stumps.


A true stumpery would have the tree roots sticking up to give some sort of sculptural image. We decided it would be safer for our young granddaughters not to have bits sticking out.

I tried to avoid making the bed to regular a shape and I also varied the height of the stumps.


I filled the bed with a mixture of peat free compost, well rotted manure and riddled top soil from the rotted down turf mound which I made from when we did other beds.


It needs to be left to settle down before planting with shade loving perennials.

A few months later. Ferns, Heuchera, Tiarella, Arisaema and Pulmonaria plus a few others.

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Comments

 

of course if its good enough for HRH it is good enough for us mere mortals. it looks as if it is going to make a lovely feature.

29 Oct, 2020

 

Looks good and those logs will be good cover for a range of wildlife, once established it will look even better, a Brunnera would look good in there.

29 Oct, 2020

 

I think there is a Brunnera in there somewhere. Certainly remember splitting one up and replanting the pieces from elsewhere. But yes, they are lovely plants.

29 Oct, 2020

 

Looks very nice and makes a good feature.

And I suspect the granddaughters will find the tops of the trunks handy as "stepping stones"

30 Oct, 2020

 

That is my kind of landscaping Owd. Well gone. There are plenty of shade loving plants which will love it there and bright up the spot . I am glad you did not have to cut that beach tree down.

30 Oct, 2020

 

Cutting the Beech tree is not an option. It has a Preservation order on it. We are not even allowed to prune any of it, including the branch which is in danger of damaging the Telephone Wires. We would need permission from the Council Tree Officer to do anything.

30 Oct, 2020

 

A lot of hard work has gone into the making of your stumpery! I expect it will look magnificent in a year's time!

30 Oct, 2020

 

How old do you think your beach tree is, Owd?
I also noticed a large specimen of Araucaria araucana.
Does it have a Preservation order on it too?

31 Oct, 2020

 

The Araucaria does not have a preservation order on it, fortunately as we think it may well be dying from the drought of a few years ago.
The Beech must have been here before the Bungalow was built which was the 1960's so at least 100 years old. There are others along the garden with TPO's on them as well. Daftest is the one on a dead Sycamore which may be a problem as it has a lot of bracket fungus on it. The other trees are on the side of the road which is why they are preserved to keep 'the leafy nature of the lane'.

31 Oct, 2020

 

That is going to look good and have a natural look to it when the plants establish themselves, I like a stumpery, made one where we cut down a massive weeping willow, obviously we could not get the base out, the tree was dying from the inside, trunk was hollow inside, I filled it with compost, used various pieces of said tree to create my stumpery, planted it up with mainly ferns and hostas, with a mix of native spring flowering plants, I'm delighted with it Ob as I'm sure you will be with yours.....

1 Nov, 2020

 

I love it Owdboggy! Looks so fitting, like it’s been there a while. I look forward to seeing it start to fill and and mature..

1 Nov, 2020

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