A Stumpery

 What, you might ask, is a stumpery? Well, it's like a rockery but made with tree stumps and logs instead of rocks. They were much loved by the Victorians to show off the ferns they brought back from abroad on their travels and are now making something of a come back. King Charles has an enormous one at Highgrove. Mine's a bit more modest lol!

I had an area that needed a bit of attention - well, maybe more than 'a bit' 😆 So I started by clearing it. As usual, I started to clear before taking a photo, but this time remembered part way through

Right hand half already cleared

The pile of weeds removed from left hand side

Showing from the left hand side - loads of weeds still to go!

So this time, I took a load of photos but somehow seem to have lost them :(  From the pictures above, you can see the area is flat and has some plants in it and a tree near the back covered with ivy. Son was home for the weekend and he managed to cut loads of the ivy off, using the axe. I dug out the plants I wanted to keep and put them in pots temporarily. Then I edged the area that is going to be the stumpery with some logs we had lying around in the garden from a tree we'd had to have cut down. I then covered the whole area with grass clippings to keep the weeds down and filled in the frame with soil. The soil came from a different area of the garden where I need to dig out a path, so killing two birds with one stone here! I did have pictures of each stage, but they have vanished, sadly.

Anyway, I made a mound. We gathered some old stumps from a nearby area of forest (pine trees) that had recently been felled and arranged them in the stumpery. There were a couple of ferns in the area before I cleared it and so I replanted those, along with several other plants - some from other parts of the garden and some from the garden centre. I also acquired some bluebell bulbs and have put those in as well.

View from the other side of the garden; the ivy covered tree is to the far right of the picture - minus its ivy, the mound has been made and the plants planted. Better picture below:

Once that was finished, I started to clear around the edge, beginning with the left hand side:

More tomorrow :)