Yard — a word worth a 1000 pictures (#32-42)

Today I decided to document the conversion of a tree stump into a flower container.

Last year one of our trees had to be cut down because it was rotting. The stump that was left behind was an interesting shape and a neighbour suggested that I make a flower pot out of it. I loved the idea so I set to work.

I quickly realized that my axe was getting me nowhere so I decided to scoop out the rotten centre and use the crevice only. Here's what I found...

Picture #32: Birch Tree stump. As it was cut down a year ago and left to the elements, I expected it to be easy to hollow out. Not so.


Picture #33: Rotten centre of our old Birch Tree. Scooping out the rotten bit was easy!


Picture #34: The wet, saw-dust centre was a mixture of loose mulched wood and pellet-like 'nodes' of wood; a lot like the crumbly quality of cut pie crust dough. I squished the pellets between my fingers. They were fairly compact but did break down into saw dust. No critters inside that I could see with the naked eye. Perhaps they were dung of some sort?


Picture #35: Millipede-like juvenile.


Picture #36: Centipede-like critter next to transparent egg-like spheres.


Picture #37: Close-up on the egg-like spheres.


Picture #38: Tiny, white egg-like sphere. I found a few of these throughout the sawdust.


Picture #39: Slug. One of four that I saw.


Picture #40: Rough Sowbug (which I have always called damp-dry bug). One of three that I saw.


Picture #41: A family of wire worms. I looked them up in my insect field guide but couldn't find them. Anyway, when I was a kid, I called them wire worms.


Picture #42: And, finally, a stump-based flower pot!