…or, more accurately, nurse stump.

Some years back this silver maple in Vi’s back yard lost a limb and took out most of the garden and half the compost bin. Several years later the remaining tree had to be removed. And, for several years since, the old stump has been slowly rotting away.

It’s a prominent part of the back yard view, and I’ve had my eye on it for quite some time—several years at least. Today, Vi’s daughter, Anna, and I turned it into a nurse stump.

I had previously hollowed out the rotten core. Today we filled it with compost, sand, and soil, and then planted Mugo pine, and Juniperus horizontalis, along with a bit of yarrow and a clump of fescue.

This will be fun to watch over the years.