A recent Thing makes planters out of stumps or driftwood. Last year, driftwood, this year stumps. Decorate with multiple succulents (last year) or Tillandsias (this year), hang on a wall or display as a centerpiece for a table.
Same as above, hung differently
Cool. I've admired stumps or driftwood assemblies for sale at various garden centers, but the prices for the stumps alone, unplanted, are eye-popping: $300, $400, $700. Lots of money for something that's going to rot.
Friday morning, a glorious The-Clean-After-The-Storm morning, I noticed a chunk of Eucalyptus stump, partially rotted, at our local park. Hmm. Got car, lugged chunk to car, brought home.
Not as impressive as above, but the right price.
Hoover Boo, stump hunter! You could start a cottage business. After choking over the driftwood prices I stumbled across recently, I'm going to be eyeing every piece my tree trimmers cut next week for possibilities.
ReplyDeleteI've got Cypress stumps waiting for me. I am wondering if I can get them out in one piece. Maybe those high prices are high for a reason.
DeleteYes - and much more fun since you found it yourself.
ReplyDeleteNot sure about mulch. I have a piece of driftwood I picked up on the beach, as a child with my parents, and it seems to be 'immortal'. Moved with me from garden to garden, silvery and unchanged, perhaps a few resident beetles.
How fun you have driftwood from your childhood! What a journey that driftwood has been on, first in the ocean, and then with you.
DeleteThe Euc stump is rock hard in places, but crumbly in others...but free is free.
Brilliant idea, very inspiring way to make plant art. And as you say, ending up as mulch. Being lazy, I tend to place logs and branches in various places in the garden so critters have a place to shelter or hide. And as a sunny lounge for lizards.
ReplyDeleteThat's a good idea, providing shelter. The lizards here love rocks, I should add more.
DeleteI have a rotting Grevellia robusta trunk on our slope that I keep eyeing but am concerned about termites so I've left it alone and some distance from the house.
ReplyDeleteTermites, yikes. :( I don't remember the stump. Will have to look for it.
DeleteHB, I tried to plant ferns on stumps to make a stumpery or something like that in a shady area of the garden, they looked nice in fall and winter but when heat arrived they looked terrible, heat is so intense in summer here that despite the ample rain everything dries off very quickly. The native Tillandsias get brown and wizened in summer but they resurrect with the cooler days of fall.
ReplyDeleteYour summer approaches. :( Hope it is a mild one. Things look terrible here in summer too--one reason I love winter!
DeleteWell done. I would never pay the prices that they are putting on those stumps. If you are patient (as you were) you can usually find what you are looking for.
ReplyDeletePatience is valuable! It does take effort to pull out those stumps, so I can see some of the price for them--but too much $$$ for me.
DeleteFantastic! I have some resurrection fern growing on a stump, along with various lichens. It is lovely and a feature in my woodland garden. I can't claim responsibility; it was entirely a gift from nature!
ReplyDeleteA gift from nature--that's the best way of all.
DeleteNicely done and the price was great!
ReplyDeleteLugging the thing to the car was the only tricky part--and it wasn't that tricky.
DeleteWell done, from the scavenging to the decorating.
ReplyDeleteWish I had your design talent to do more, but we got to work with what we got.
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