Why was the tree removed? Was it sick, too close to the house, ugly, or what?

Stumps can be ground out and the soil can be leveled. I've paid $100-$150. for stump removal (grinding) for small and medium stumps, and I live in an expensive area. Your cost may be less, and well worth it if this is in a prominent area of your yard.

It sounds like you are missing your shade. It could be that you need to plant another tree, but perhaps further away from your house (garage??? Can't tell what that brick structure is).

A planting bed should not be an island on it's own. It needs to fit within its context. From that picture, I know very little about the context. I can't tell if this is a front or back corner of a house, garage or shed. I don't know if it is on a 1/3 acre suburban lot or on many acres surrounded by farmland or forests. Is the brick building part of a one story, 900 square foot rancher, or a 6,000 square foot, 3 story estate home? What you plant near one may not be appropriate near the other. Please post a broader picture so we can see the context.

To sort of continue with vicki's thoughts, it is not necessary to preserve the previous shape of the bed. If the bed was there because the tree was there, now you can grind out the stump and start fresh. Treat the whole area like a blank canvas, rather than focusing on this one spot. Look at the big picture. What do you want for this section of your property?

Vicki: It was an 80' pine that was struck by lightning and looming dangerously over the roof! We lost 3 trees at the same time and it was so expensive to take them down & would have been over our budget to take out the stumps. So I'm stuck with it - for the near future anyway. It is at the front corner of our 2 story home on about 1/3 acre lot. I don't miss the shade exactly, just not used to having sun.
Here's a broader photo.
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I had a 50 year old silver maple cut down. The trunk was about 42 inches in diameter, the root flare above ground was much larger. We had a few people come out to quote grinding out the stump and a lot of the roots that were close to the surface. The guy we chose came back a second time, after we removed a lot of the loose stuff, to grind down as far as he could go. The whole thing only cost us $150, and was worth every penny. The area that was ground down was about a 8x10' area, and 10-12" below the surface. I went from having an area that was not suitable for planting, to an area that is now so rich that the plants in it are growing like crazy. I did have to let it sit for a year, but at least I didn't have to try to garden around a stump.

Look in the phone book and see if any of the stump grinders give free estimates. You might reconsider when you see the quotes, or at least feel it's worth doing next year.

Thanks, and Yes, perhaps when we've recovered from the cost of the tree removal, I'll get some quotes. Meanwhile I suppose I could just put a couple of big pots on top of the stump (which is about 36" across).

I didn't look at your photo correctly. That is a big root mass, too. I read somewhere that to imagine the root mass that is underground, look at the canopy of the tree. When you were planting the flowers, did you hit a lot of roots?

There are alot of roots, and they go out pretty far, some beyond the bed, but they're very shallow; the small ones will just pull right out.