Post written by ACG horticulture intern, Sydney Stohr
Throughout the summer, I have been working on creating tree stump planters. My vision was to create a low-maintenance planter that aligns with the naturalness of the Wisconsin woodland garden and seamlessly blends into the landscape. We use many containers to add a visual dimension to other garden spaces, however, the woodland is a wilder landscape where conventional planters would not fit in. With this came the idea of using materials that are naturally found in woodlands so the planters wouldn’t look out of place.
Perhaps the most important element of these planters is the plants that fill them. Since we only use native Wisconsin woodland plants in this part of the garden, annuals that normally fill containers were not an option. Instead, I chose three of my favorite woodland plants that would complement each other. My choices were Native Foamflower (Tiarella cordifolia), White Wood Aster (Eurybia divaricata), and Pennsylvania Sedge (Carex pensylvanica). Native Foamflowers have lime green leaves which complement the darker stems of White Wood Asters, and Pennsylvania Sedges provide a different texture of foliage.
My plan for executing the project was to use a 1 ¾” Forstner drill bill to hollow the insides of the logs. The first stump was already in place in the woodland garden’s stumpery. It has a two-foot diameter and was formerly used as a tic-tac-toe board but had since begun to rot. This made it easier for me to remove the insides of this large stump, which, due to its size, I am not sure I would have been able to remove had it not begun to rot.
To prevent the stump from rotting further, I added drainage holes. Since the stump was already in place, I didn’t drill all the way to the bottom. Instead, I used a longer drill bit to make drainage holes in the side of the planter parallel to the bottom of the hollowed portion. After this step, I added the plants potted in a combination of potting mix and saw dust from drilling. I completed this stump in one afternoon at the beginning of June and two months later the plants are pushing new growth. The Foamflowers have begun to produce runners and the asters are about to flower!
The second stump was much smaller and made of cedar, however, it had little decay making it harder to work with. This resulted in the process taking significantly longer than the first planter. Drilling through solid wood with a wide drill bit was extremely challenging. To overcome this problem, I drilled a small hole and proceeded to use an axe and a chisel to slowly widen the hole. Although this made the process more efficient, it still took me at least six hours to create a hole large enough for a White Wood Aster in a one-gallon container. Despite the challenges, I am happy with the result; especially the moss around the base.
With two planters complete, I was onto my last stump and plant. This stump is made of oak and is even harder to work with than the cedar. It took me about two hours to make a shallow 3-inch diameter hole! I used the axe to loosen up the wood which made drilling easier, but still quite slow. Luckily, I only had one Foamflower left in a 5-inch wide pot, so the planter didn’t need to be as big as the others.
Although this was a slow-going project, I am pleased with the result and what I have added to the woodland garden. All of the plants have adjusted well to the containers and are fairly low-maintenance as they don’t require frequent watering. This project took more time than anticipated, but I am happy with how the planters turned out and excited to watch how the stumps and plants change over time.
