Stump is an ideal material for landscaping and creating original decor for the garden. Many design ideas turn an unappealing dry wooden log into garden decorations and building materials. To implement any of them you will need the stump itself, a little imagination and tools.

As a flower bed and flower stand

Stumps are great for making wooden garden decorations. Of these, you can make wooden walkways, furniture, flower stands, art installations. They allow you to give your garden originality. But whatever you plan, start by preparing the stump for future use. To do this, the future designer product needs to be uprooted. Leaving the stump “as is”, you risk losing the product over time due to woodworkers, moisture and fungi.

Did you know? One teaspoon of soil has more microorganisms than people on Earth. It may seem awful to you, but they are important for preserving nutrients in the soil and processing organics.

The lower part must be carefully treated, cutting off the roots, and then remove the exfoliating bark and knots on the sides. The existing deep damage is puttyed, treated with preservatives and varnished. You can color it in any color if you want. But real beauty lies in its natural appearance, rustic texture and grayish tones. The most popular design is a flowerpot. Designers suggest installing a pot on top of which to plant a flower.

To do this, you will need:

1. Make a recess in the inner cavity with a depth of about 20-30 cm. The width is made so as to preserve at least 5-7 cm of wood on each side on the walls. On the side, several inclined holes are necessarily created for the outflow of moisture.
2. Treat cavity with preservatives.
3. Buy a pot according to the size of the cavity. Fill it with a substrate and plant flowers.
4. Then install it in a stump.
5. Bulbous, ground-cover and any other plants are suitable for planting. Petunia, nasturtium, tulips, wild strawberries, marigolds look good.

Below, at the foot of the hemp, various ground cover plants can also be planted. They will decorate this space.

Forest decor for the garden

The stump will also serve to create handmade garden decorations. It can become a mushroom if you put a hat on top of it. Any old basin painted in yellow-brown will become such. It will expand the composition of a pair of plastic pipes with smaller bowls put on them.

There are also other design ideas:

1. Using improvised materials, attach a stump to your eyes, nose and mouth, and you will get a funny little forest man.
2. A high stump will become a stand to which flower pots are attached. If you plant blooming summer plants in them, then it will also be very attractive.
3. Attach a ladder to it, put on a roof, add windows and a door from small rails, and you get a fabulous tower.
4. You can make an octopus from a small stump if you add tentacles from the hose to it.

Garden furniture

The simplest stump can be is a garden stool. If you place a countertop on top of it, you get a small table. They will look very natural in the garden. The top of the stumps-stools is equipped with a soft seat made of leatherette and any stuffed material for the convenience of the seated. Each seat made in this way can remain unique in height. Or they are made equal, having been cut down to the same size. It will be nice to install garden furniture in the recreation area. But it can also be placed near the garage, on the playground or in the garden. It will be equally attractive and functional everywhere.

Important! When using stump furniture in the playground, take care to fix the stumps in the ground and carefully polish all the bumps, and treat the surface with preservatives that prevent the destruction of wood and varnish.

Making a table:

1. The stump to be used in the work must be absolutely dry. If the wood is fresh, then you need to wait at least a month until it dries.
2. Strip the bark. A hammer and chisel will help in this.
3. Sand the surface. Running a hand on a stump, you need to feel that it is smooth.
4. Attach the purchased legs to it with a drill.
5. If you do not fasten the countertop, then treat the future table with varnish. You can install the countertop by planting it on glue or on screws. Having finished work - cover the product with varnish.

For the manufacture of garden furniture you need a stump, sandpaper, polyurethane, brush, legs, drill and chainsaw. Legs can be bought as a set in a furniture hardware store. It is advisable to choose stainless steel products - they will last much longer.

You can make a chair out of a big stump. To do this, it is worth using a saw, a hammer and a chisel to cut out a cavity of a suitable size inside - about 60-70 cm for the design of the back, seat and handles. By laying the log along and cutting out the seats in it, you can create not a chair, but a whole garden sofa.

Garden lamp

LEDs are installed in the cracks of the stump. And if there are several stumps, then you can create a composition from a table and a pair of stools for evening relaxation. The light breaking through the bark will give them a magical and romantic look.

Important! The wood for the stump-lamp should not be wet or rotten.

For the manufacture of a lantern, any type of stump is suitable - pine, spruce. It does not even have to be a fresh piece of wood. The presence of cracks will add to it uniqueness. If you carefully stretch them with a chainsaw, then the cracks will let in more light.

How to make a flashlight:

1. Remove all bark completely.
2. Be sure to wear protective clothing - safety glasses and earphones if you cannot stand the noise. Protect your hands, feet and feet with work gloves, cut protection trousers and boots with protective inserts.
3. Draw on the trunk marks on which you will cut. It is necessary to make the core hollow in order to insert a light source there. The hole in the center should be at least 20 cm so that the LED lamp is correctly positioned in the middle, so you need to draw a square to start cutting at both ends.
4. Fasten the log in the yew.
5. Now make cuts. Since you need to crash inward, and this causes a powerful force, make sure that the barrel is well fixed before work. Use a chain with a smaller distance between the depth gauge and the teeth of the saw - this will make the power tool easier to control.
6. After receiving a through hole for installing the lamp, proceed to sawing the sidewalls. There you need to make gaps through which light will break through.
7. Using an angle grinder, smooth the edges of the wood.
8. Before installing the lamp, treat the inside with solid wax oils.
9. Install an autonomous light source inside. Close the top with a decorative strip, and the wooden lamp is ready.

Video: how to make a hemp lamp

Climbing plant support

Filling the stump with flowers makes it the center of attention. To do this, you can saw holes on the sides, cut out the middle. To prevent wood from being damaged by contact with water, a plastic pipe of the appropriate diameter is installed inside the hollow trunk. The marker indicates the location of the landing holes along the already made holes on the trunk.

Did you know? Not flowers, but nectar are attracted to the garden of pollinating insects, so simple plants like dandelion and clover will attract more bees than the beautiful chrysanthemums.

They drill holes in the pipe and, having set it in place, fill it with a nutritious mixture of compost, peat, garden soil and sand. In the lower part of the stump, inclined drainage holes are necessarily made for water flow. Now, in the prepared design, you can plant seedlings of flowering annuals or perennials.

The second way is that metal pot mounts are attached to the barrel. There can be any number of them. Then, containers with flowers are hung around the perimeter.

Paths and paths

A wooden log will easily become a decorative garden path, if you saw it into kruglyash and pave the selected alley with them. But in order for such a path to last longer, it will be necessary to carefully approach the issue of its creation.

Important! You cannot use kruglyash, which have lost their integrity and have splits. Such elements begin to collapse faster than others, and the track will soon have to be repaired.

Track creation:

1. Prepared round beads must be treated with an antiseptic. It is then varnished so that they can withstand moisture. Then the lower part is covered with bitumen mastic or tar.
2. Then make a marking of the track and remove the upper part of the soil with a shovel up to a depth of 20 cm. The exact depth depends on the size of the dies created.
3. The bottom of the trench is covered with geotextile, then a layer of gravel and a layer of sand are placed on top of it. And on top of the sand, prepared round beads are laid. Each layer must be rammed with a vibrating plate, otherwise the track will quickly lose its shape.

The sides are fixed with a layer of concrete and stone. The space between the wood can also be flooded with concrete. It is an easy, effective and relatively inexpensive solution for garden paths.

Decorative painting and mosaic

In order to apply a decorative design to the stumps, it is enough to have paints and a bit of artistic talent. The stump surface must be cleaned of bark and polished. Then a sketch is applied with a pencil and painted with paints. After which the surface is varnished. Mosaic can also be applied to the stump. The upper part is suitable for this. Mosaic can be a pattern or abstraction without any meaningful drawing.

Cover the stump with a mosaic:

1. Grind the surface. It should be perfectly flat.
2. Apply waterproof sealant to it. It is necessary that the finished product does not lose its volume due to changes in humidity. Otherwise, the mosaic will crack.
3. Now apply a pencil drawing to the surface.
4. Buy the mosaic in the craft store or break the tile into pieces, and then lay it out on the pattern on the stump surface previously covered with glue. Spread the glue gradually, so that it does not have time to dry, while you lay out the pieces of the mosaic.
5. Let the product dry for 24 hours.
6. Wipe the surface with a clean cloth dipped in white vinegar.

There may be many design solutions for using wood. Each finds his fans, so if you still have a stump from an old tree or an ordinary log from the trunk, then do not rush to destroy it. Using imagination and a little work, you can create a number of wonderful products for your garden.