Return of the Stump Garden

Inside: Last year we turned an ordinary stump into a garden. . . Well, the stump garden is back, but with a few changes. We’ll show you how we put it together.

Back to the Stump

Last year I said it: If life gives you a fallen tree, make a stump garden. We did. And it was good.

Enter 2018. Not quite as much enthusiasm–life has been busy. Not as many funds. So this year I told Mom that we’d make do. I’ve had garden years like that, when I decide the plants that will be in my garden mostly by opportunity–free and heavily discounted plants, volunteers (plants, I mean) in my garden, seeds I’ve had on hand for a while. Plant gifts. (Thanks, Mom!) It’s a Doris Day style garden–“Que Sera, Sera.” Whatever will be, will be. (Sing along if you know it.)

Anyway, while this might sound like one of those economizing downers, it’s really anything but that. It’s fun to see what God brings to me for my garden. Some plants I would not have chosen for myself, but I end up being happily surprised. Gardening by the seat of one’s pants can be kind of fun, actually.

The Before Shot

As you can see from the photo, a few plants survived the winter. Silver mound, creeping jenny, two kinds of sedum, and Mexican firebush signed on for another year. Some of last year’s soil has washed away, so it’s a different game this summer. Up to this point I had been watering the plants once a week or so to keep them happy. Before we started inserting new plants, we wet the stump down well and brought extra soil with fertilizer already added in to help support the new additions. Basically we tucked flowers and vines into crevices and on the top, bottom, and sides of the stump, keeping in mind each plant’s growth habits–trailing, mounding, and height. Last year our sweet potato vines ended up hogging much of the stump, so we filled in with fewer plants this time around, knowing come August our stump garden will be covered nicely.

Ta-Da!

In the top half of our stump, from the far left to right, we have sedum, lime green sweet potato vine, unknown (to us) plant that looks like a spider plant with thicker leaves, purslane, trailing vinca (pink and coral), creeping jenny, bronze sweet potato vine. On the bottom half from the left we have silver mound, more trailing vinca, celosia, more creeping jenny, another silver mound, verbena, and Mexican firebush. What isn’t showing from this angle is the heliotrope, sedum, more pink vinca, Kong coleus, red salvia, and Mexican petunia.

So far so good. Now to let the sun and rain work their magic. We’ll help things along with an application of fertilizer.

I’ll keep you posted as our stump garden grows.

What unusual gardening methods, containers, or plants do you use? Tell us about it in the comments.

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