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Gardening in the UK

Planting over stumps

10 years ago

Hello!

We've just bought our first house, and with it our first garden, which I'm slowly re-adapting to make it my own. I was looking for some planting advice for an area towards the back of the garden, where I've got some tree stumps in the borders.

When we arrived, there was a lot of rubble covering some areas in our borders (raised beds with concrete walls) so I've removed that to reveal these partially-rotted stumps that were once reasonably large trees (trunk diameter would have been about 30cm) with some bare soil around them.

I would obviously like to make these look pretty by adding some plants, I'm thinking of flowers, but I'm sure there are complications around planting over stumps, does anybody have any suggestions for what sort of plants or methods I should use in this area?

West facing house in the south of England, fairly shady spot, see pictures below of the two stumps and larger photo of the area.

Thanks a lot!

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Comments (3)

TaraMaiden
10 years ago
Hi, Ickle_Cat, hope you're still around! It's been nearly a month, so I wouldn't be surprised if you weren't!

Anyhow, let's see:
Have you any idea what these trees were?

The roots look pretty dead to me, but you may like to consider the hire of a grinder to eliminate as much of the surface remnant as possible.

The borders look quite tiny...

In your position I would look to be honest, at a total 're-model. Maybe build up the borders by constructing some brick planters, (3 feet high, and in whatever shapes would suit and fit.

We did this in our old garden. we built plant enclosures, leaving quarter-brick gaps at the bottom for drainage, filled them to 6" with stones and then poured in sacks a-plenty of good potting compost.

Given that the trees look dead, if you build over and around them, so that they are right at the bottom of the plant beds, they will gradually rot away....

Fifth picture, first row, and first picture second row, is what they looked like.
ickle_cat
Original Author
10 years ago
Hi Tara, thank goodness for email alerts!
I don't mind the look of the stumps, I'm more looking for small plants that are both OK in the shade and have a shallow root depth that can go around the stumps into the soil to make the border look nicer (think little medow flowers growing through a path). The brick planters are a good idea but not the asthetic I think I want to go for.

I've had a go at the stump in the bottom picture at trying to get some mushrooms to grow. I bought some closed cup ones from the supermarket (they looked like they still had the mycillim on them but I'm not expert) and just buried them. Nothing so far, but I live in hope.

I guess what I'm after is suggestions on plants with the right asthetic but also that are OK in the shade. Whatever is growing in the second picture is quite pretty and has some flowers now, I'd settle for some more of that!
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TaraMaiden
10 years ago
Ah, ok, right: Plants that love shade:

The plant in the picture is Vinca, more commonly known as Periwinkle,
Violas (lots of varieties, some with speckled petals, some perfumed)

Alchemilla Mollis (Lady's Mantle)

Cyclamen Coum

There's a great list here: Just look at the growth pattern, but remember that under trees, and in the shade, they may need copious watering....

Hope this helps!

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