It has been a year for green so far – weekly wild storms have brought incessant rain, turning the garden and woods lush and green.
Earlier this spring, we were having a tree trimmed away from the roof of the house when the arborists found that it was completely hollow – “like a straw” they said – and needed to come down. They did a magnificent job of bringing down the trunk and refitting it together so that I could make it a garden feature as part of the new woodland walk. 
They leveled the stump, which was ready-filled with soft compost, and I used it as a fern planter. 
The smaller branches were chipped and then used to line the path. Although the trunk landed where the mayapples grow, they found their way around it. You can see the hollow where the rain came in and disintegrated the inside of the tree.
I’ve continued filling the new beds along then fence with plants native to our area and it is beginning to resemble a garden. Now the woodland walk is a lush green place for Pixie and I to wander each morning, rain or shine.
Come to the woods, for here is rest. There is no repose like that of the green deep woods. ~John Muir
Here’s the story of the woodland walk in video as a part of the Garden Dreams series that I’m sharing with 4 other collaborators.
Days of rain alternating with very hot sunny days spurred plant growth and spawned violent thunderstorms and tornados more typical of July than May. Last weekend, after days of rain and very warm weather, everything changed. The temperatures cooled and the rain turned to mist. I filmed the mist outside the door that night and the next day I rose before dawn to film what I was sure would be fog. Here’s a short little film of that magical misty morning in the garden.
I hope you enjoyed walking through my garden with me; I wish you beautiful days now and to come.
composerinthegarden 
I’m happy you were able to make such great use out of the take-down – and those Mayapples are tough! I remember them from childhood, growing in the woods behind our house at the edge of Syracuse, NY. What magic there is in hearing the Carolina chickadee serenading you on that misty morning! That’s a beautiful video. Thanks for posting the updates on your friends’ gardens, too. Who knows what the weather will do next but you obviously are rolling with it quite nicely! Have a great weekend!
There is nothing quite like the atmospherics created by fog in a woodland setting. Your video did a wonderful job of transmitting that magic. (The first video was excellent as well.)
We’ve agreed about this before, Kerry – fog is a photographer’s (and videographer’s) friend! It also changes the quality of sound – background noise is muted and nearby sounds become exaggerated against the silence – it always feel, and sounds, like magic to me. -)
The lushness of your personal paradise is a treat. Your care and creativity shines … and I adore how you used the old stump for the fern! The words and sights of the second video are wonderful! Thanks for sharing with us.
Thank you so much, Frank – the arborist leveled the stump so I could use it to hold a birdbath but when I realized that the inside was completely compost, a fern seemed the best choice. I love the way it looks when I step out the back door 🙂 So glad you enjoyed the videos too!
Lovely to see your lush green garden and the hollow tree being useful again. I enjoyed your post ver much.
Thank you, Gerrie – we are having a very lush season here!
Yes, everything is lush here too, most unusual.
What an excellent idea to make such good use of the fallen tree.
It was partly luck and partly the skill of the arborists – 100% recycled and pretty too!
Another excellent walk through your woods!
We have quite a few dead spruce that didn’t survive the dry conditions of the past few years (too many trees grew too close together during the 30 years of normal to high moisture!)
The up side is that each dead tree gets chipped and when the chips are used as mulch, good things happen!
Margy, yes you definitely know the value of recycling trees into chips! There is a national network here in the U.S. called chipdrop that anyone can join to get free chips from arborists – it gives the arborists a place to deliver them and keeps them out of the landfills and helps out the homeowners. I haven’t had to use it yet (ha hah!) but I know of many gardeners who do. Win win for everyone.
What an excellent idea! The city near where we live puts all their chippings into an area where the public can come and get them. Not quite as handy as delivery, but a win win!
Magical indeed 😍
Thank you Kim 🙂
Mighty handsome fern planter!
Thanks Judy – ready made, already filled with high quality compost – how could I resist!
Lynn, a beautiful post. May your fallen tree nurture much new life.
Thank you Lisa – it was a fun challenge to see how much of that poor tree that I could reuse – a 100% is good 🙂
Loved this, Lynn, it is so peaceful and just plain beautiful! Between what you have done with the ferns, the fallen tree edging Pixie’s path 😊, the cool greens of the forest, the singing birds and your perfect narrative, I could (and will) watch it over and over! I hope you enjoy a whole summer of peaceful moments in your woodland garden! My best, Mary
Thank you for your kind words Mary – I’m so glad you enjoyed this tale! The woodland garden has been my dream for a long time, so it is satisfying to see it come into fruition.
I love how you repurposed the hollowed tree as a planter, fernery and to line the path. A fitting end as it slowly is reclaimed by the earth.
Thank you Eliza – I’ve had a few trees that have fallen or been taken down over the years but this is the first that I’ve repurposed so much in different ways. Of course it will change over the years too – another element of change in the garden. 🙂
Progress indeed over the past two months.
This is the first time Iâve encountered the word stumpery. As I typed it, the WordPress editor underlined it with red dots, a sign that it didnât recognize the term either.
(And just to let you know, I encountered a problem Iâve intermittently run into on one other blog. When I clicked to post my comment a few minutes ago, WordPress put up a screen asking me to log in, even though I was logged in and able to comment on other WordPress blogs. Iâm commenting now by replying to the e-mail notification I received for your post.)
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Steve, I find WordPress hard to work with these days, it definitely doesn’t like the Safari browser that I prefer and I have similar problems with not being recognized as having signed in. As for “stumpery”, the tradition in England is a long one and has been adopted here in the states for a while – a fancy way of not wanting or not able to remove a felled tree trunk and using the parts of it to create a garden feature, usually with planted with ferns and moss. The Stumpery at Highgrove was my biggest inspiration, though mine is just a little experiment. Always something new to learn in gardening.
Oh, Lynn, how beautiful! The video is mesmerizing. All looks magnificently lush and full. Your garden is so nurturing; I always feel I’ve had a few sips of some magical elixir when I indulge in a new Composer post. Thank you so much. Excited to follow all news of the woodland trail, too! ♥️
Oh Kitty, thank you for your wonderful comment. I love that idea of sipping a magical elixir – I feel that way every day when I walk into the garden 🙂 Always wonderful to have you stop by and comment.