Had a very big birch in the back garden and discovered it was rotting inside with mould and mushrooms growing inside it. Its bee vut down all but about 10ft of stump.

Sad to see it go and it’s really opened up the garden but want to make some kind of feature so the garden doesn’t feel too empty.

Any ideas?

Just leave it, dead wood is biodiversity gold dust. Loads of bugs means loads of birds and mammals and fungus should most definitely be among us

I agree with thestabiliser, we had our cherry tree fall down in the (not that big) back garden about 18 months ago. We’ve left it where it fell and the wildlife loves it.

I have lots of the cuttings so could maybe make something with them? Smaller stumps are about 30cm diameter. Most have hollow parts where the rot spread.

Really miss the tree but keep telling myself it could have fallen and done some damage to ours or our neighbours house.

and fungus should most definitely be among us

It is, you looked at the news lately?

Just wait.

If it’s not actually dead, theres a chance it will start growing back.

ride it!

Yep could be a great feature to keep for wildlife as a dead wood stem if it’s in the right place and you can manage it.

Some good techy info Here on safety thoughts and what to keep or get rid of.

Assuming that the stump was left at an agreed length and is stable, reiterating many of the above comments, standing deadwood is a valuable habitat. It might be interesting to document changes to the stump over time if you do choose to leave it standing.

Yeah we agreed to leave a tall stump. It’s about 40cm wide and 2.5 meters tall. This part of the tree looks fine but the rest they cut down was mostly hollow, black, or badly cracked with mushrooms growing inside.

Theres plenty of space around it and got a pile of the better bits of wood we wanted to keep to either burn or make something out of.

Did it die due to honey fungus? If it did, there may be black streaks through the wood, I remember a woodturner telling me that they are prized , called spalted wood? I could be wrong here mind.

I wouldnt want a tree which died of honey fungus knocking about my garden if I had other trees mind. Unlike some fungus, I dont think its fussy as to whether it attacks living or dead material. It killed my apricot and cherry trees and I’m still livid.

Someone round the corner from us has had an owl chainsaw carved into the top 3ft or so of their long stump – looks great but I’ve no idea how much it would have cost.

One half of a hammock support? Do you have another tree close to it?

Isn’t this when @worldclassaccident pops round to carve you a big squirrel half way up a ladder with a chain saw in flip flops?

Totum pole!

Isn’t this when @worldclassaccident pops round to carve you a big squirrel half way up a ladder with a chain saw in flip flops?

Don’t be silly, squirrels don’t wear flip-flops.

We had a tree cut down last year which left a stump. I thought that would be it but the stump keeps sprouting new shoots. How do I stop the tree trying to regrow?