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reusing old conifer stumps

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  • djjjukdjjjuk Posts: 211

    Hi Christine,

    wow great idea, thanks for that. i wonder if i could somehow hollow them out somewhat, put a liner within them so they kind of become a stump basket. not sure how id hollow them but i'll give it more of a think ...

     

  • MrsGardenMrsGarden Posts: 3,951

    Hi djjjuk,

    I've had these tree stumps for years as 'seats', they deteriorate over time but I've had many years of pleasure from them so far.  

    the other pic is my 'totem pole' , not doing much at the moment admittedly.

    image

    image

     You probably can't see but to the right of the last pic I started to weave old branches between existing conifer trunks to make a fence, I changed my mind on that project and didn't complete it).

     

  • I have a very long garden with eight foot high conifer along most of the length. I hate and I'm sure the next door hate them to . could I cut all branches from the trunk and put two rows of wooden batons across attached to the trunk,  then attached fence panels onto the back of batons. a living fence post but really wouldn't mind if tree died! 
  • K67K67 Posts: 2,506
    The two on the left I covered with chicken wire for  the existing clematis montana and the other was turned into a wood sculpture. When we moved the new owners bought it otherwise I would have cut it off at the base and taken it with me and the montana had hidden the other stumps completely 

  • K69 love the sculpture, great idea 

  • josusa47josusa47 Posts: 3,530
    At the park where I'm a volunteer gardener, we lost a couple of trees to high winds.  We had a sculptor carve the stumps into owls.  His name is Mark Earp, you can see samples of his work on his website and Facebook page.  I had a row of conifers beheaded when I moved to my present garden, I had the trunks left six feet tall (too late for yours) to use them as support for climbers.  I bought seven different varieties of ivy from a specialist nursery called Fibrex so each trunk has its own variety.
  • I think stumps can be quite attractive. I have two enormous ones (over two feet in diameter) in a bed where, for similar reasons to yours, it isn't practical to remove them. I have decided just to keep them as part of the landscape. I am growing plants up and around them (clematis, nasturtiums) and one has already been surrounded by a vigorous solanus and some acanthus crowding around it. I am also using one as a base for a bird-bath. Stop regarding them as a problem, and think of them as a feature giving support and structure to your garden until the hedging takes over-  you can still put new hedging plants in between, and as they grow up, the stumps will rot down, as happens in nature.  For the evergreen hedging, you can try holly, pyrocanthus, cotoneaster, pittosporum, Portuguese laurel,  etc, and perhaps some deciduous ones like hawthorn, elder etc.
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