The downed trees from Irene were finally cut up for fire wood. And this is what I'm left with. This is right on the edge of my lawn. What can I do with it? It's way to expensive to have it removed. ( photo / image / picture from Donna S's Garden )
Hi, looks like a great place for a gnomery, some are already there I am sure....look amongst that greenery. With some shade loving hanging plants for cover, they would love it there!
What's the shade and sun pattern of that area spring through fall? That will be a big factor in what can be planted there.
You could make a rock/stone/block wall around it and make a raised bed out of it, suitable for whichever amount of sun/shade the area gets. That would retain any sloughing off soil and keep it neat/attractive/presentable or easily maintainable. Stones or large rocks could be gathered at no cost and laid up as you get them. try to keep the front side fairly even and fill in the back side with soil scraped off the root ball or hauled in. If you have freezing at all in your area you might want to consider a gravel fill for drainage instead of soil for the back fill, just to keep the wall from heaving from the frost.
I like the gnomery idea...how about a mossy fairy house or two...or a whole village. You can do amazing things with old stumps.
How about DIY Donna S, first remove as much earth as you can from the root area. If you can make use of a high pressure water jet cleaner after removing most of the loose earth. Next get someone with a chain saw and cut a few slabs from the stump. These slabs make great table top with some legs added to it. Then cut off as much of the exposed roots as possible so that the stump can be easily moved. Finally the stump can be cut into smaller pieces vertically so that it can dry out and be used in the fire place too!
Hi Donna, its amazing,..there are you trying to get rid of the stump area and some time back i had to create a stump or mound to grow my "Campanula portenschuagiana" ( photo / image / picture from Philip Nulty's Garden )
What an interesting opportunity you have, Donna. My first idea was to make a wall either of wood, stones or bricks...do a bit of backfilling with sand or gravel and then add more soil. I would then remove all the vegetation that I see growing there and then make it clean and raked. Personally, I would leave the stump because there is a whole system of microculture that Mother Nature has set in place to naturally dispose of the stump. This dead stump will be home to all manner of insects and little animals. (there are some parks and gardens where they purposefully leave ant tree that falls for just the reasons that I have outlined. Now, with the wall,you can leave small gaps here and there to stuff plants into. The top will be a mound and on top you can plant any variety of plants that can either be individuals or a "ground cover/hanging type). As I said, the choices are numerous. Of course as Toni said, it is essential to know the sun-shade ratio in this place before you decide what plants to use there. Eileen's idea of making a mounded rock garden sounds most attractive...and who can not see the undeniable beauty of Philip's "purple mound". Please keep us posted with this project.
