A client was interested in creating a landscape environment for a sculpture they had purchased out west. Once I had seen the bear sitting on a what appeared to be a beaver’s lodge, a stumpery garden seemed a natural choice. Stumpery gardens date back to the Victorian period, and were especially popular in England. Stumps and their roots were incorporated into woodland style gardens in much the same way that a rock garden features rocks. Once the pool and waterfall behind the sculpture were complete, a rustic boulder wall was built to contain the soil slope. The stumps, sourced from a farmer in the thumb of Michigan, were placed with the aid of a front-end loader. The plantings feature various dwarf conifers, as well as vines and perennials.
