It’s been raining so much here, I started looking through some sunny photos and came across these. We have some enormous tree stumps on our property, old growth douglas fir stumps measuring 6-8 feet in diameter, left behind by the logging that took place when the San Francisco fire took its toll on our island’s trees. Our oldest and tallest helped rebuild that city, hundreds of miles to our south. One stump is so large we built a playhouse for our children off the edge of it, the perfect platform plus huckleberry garden for a pallet playhouse for little tree climbers.
But the mid-sized stumps on our cleared land just sat there for years, slowly rotting out, a small mass of wood and rocks that would take a bull dozer to remove. I decided to turn one, in the middle of a yard, into a planter. Since the stump’s interior was soft, I removed what woody material I could and then put potting soil and compost in its place. My planter was ready for an indigenous perennial.
I chose crocosmia because they’re hardy, come from a bulb and need to be contained. Their reedy thin sword-like leaves spreading forth from the round and flat stump offer a pretty look. And the flashy red flowers are especially stunning in the late summer.
Stump planters are a natural way to take advantage of the remains of an old tree. Here’s one made from a palm tree stump that my mother-in-law used to plant cacti.
You don’t have to wait for your trees to become stumps to make planters. These geraniums add color to a twisted trunk with a hole large enough to hold a geranium plant or two.
Do you have a stump or natural planter you’ve created for your blossoms? Please share. Planters can be made from nearly everything.
Pioneering The Simple Life 
Though I don’t have a picture of it, I made a checkerboard pattern on top of a stump so we could play checkers on it!
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Oh, I love it! If you ever have the time to take a picture of it, I’d love to see it. What a great idea.
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Oh wow, what a great idea! I don’t have a garden but there is a very old twisted tree near where I walk the dog – I could do some wild guerrilla planting when the weather gets better. Thanks for the inspiration 😀
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Wild guerilla plantings are the best. Can’t wait to see what you come up with!
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Thanks, Its Autumn now where I live, heading into Winter, so I’ll have to stick to planning, and also looking out for more old holey trees, heh! 🙂
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We call crocosmia monbretia, ours is brilliant orange and has been in our back garden for nearly 30 years. It is just getting unruly now and a bit greedy so we’ll have to pull some of it up soon as it’s sending shoots up in amongst other plants. The only thing I don’t like is when the leaves start rotting. Lovely photos and lpvely to see you back blogging ☺️
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Thanks Chris! Yes, that Crocosmia can be invasive and when it reproduces into a tight ball of bulbs, is really hard to pull from the garden. This is why I love putting it in spaces where it can be contained. Thanks for cheering me on. With this film project, I rarely have a moment to catch my breath. But something about the turn towards wetter and colder weather has made me yearn to write a bit and reconnect with my blogging friends! Great to hear from you.
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Well, hello stranger. I’ve missed your posts. We don’t have our own garden, but I can drop a few hints about all these ideas to friends who have.
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Hello back to you, my friend! Thanks for reading up on my wishful dreaming for bright summer blooms. I’m a work-as-little-as-I-can kind of gardener, so these stump planters are zero-care so right up my alley. Looking forward to being in touch!
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