After paying for tree-removal services, you could still be left with a stump in the middle of the lawn. While you can hire your tree-removal service to remove both tree and stump, you might consider creatively incorporating the stump into your current landscape design. Here are some ideas for how you can make beauty of the a beast of a tree stump.
1. Make the stump a focal point in your flower garden.
The rugged texture of the stumps exterior can make a great textural focal point in a flower garden. Use a small hatchet to hollow out a portion of the stump. Fill the area with potting soil. Use shallow-rooted annual or perennial flowers to fill the "flowerpot" you fashioned out of the stump. For a more ethereal effect, choose flowers that will "pour" over the stump in abundance, like morning glories or alyssum. In dryer climates, decorative grasses or even a small shrub could be planted in a larger stump.
2. Use the stump as a platform.
You can use an old stump as a "stage" to show off a particularly nice decor piece. For example, you could sand the surface of the stump and stain it with a color-enhancing varnish. Then, place gnomes, decorative farm machinery, or birdhouses on the stump. If the stump was tall and thin enough, you could even fasten your mailbox on and put house numbers on the stump for a rustic, welcoming yard feature.
3. Use the stump as furniture.
Stumps are useful when fashioned into stools, chairs, or table. Large, wide, stump surfaces could actually be used as an outdoor serving buffet to hold plates of food or party decorations. If you are handy with a chainsaw and hatchet, you could whittle the stump into an actual chair with a back and arm rests and set up your fire pit to accommodate the stump furnishings.
4. Treat the roots, but use the rest.
Some people would like to have stump decor, but they still don't want to leave the stump and roots in the ground. In this case, have your tree-removal company cut what they can from the stump for you to use in your projects and grind and treat the rest. You can cut the stump into tree circles to use as stepping stones for a garden or use the stump parts as portable stools for a patio. You could even use a stump as the base for a rope swing from a rustic treehouse.
Talk to a company such as Hodgson's Expert Tree Service to learn more about what a tree-removal service can do for you.
