Cut wood stumpery

[Noviceplanter]

Hello, I've had a tree cut, asked them to leave some bits, arranged them and now I'm trying to figure out how to plant them up.

It's in a corner of the back garden, fullish sun. I was thinking a few tall things at the back, make a few shallow planting holes in some of the flat tree areas, something trailing somewhere and some creeping things at the front. I'm going to backfill various bits once I have an idea of what I'm planting. At the back there will be approx 10 inches deep for roots, more like 5 inches deep at the front. Possibly evergreen but not constrained by that.
That's as far as I've got in my thoughts.

Off to a local garden centre tomorrow and fingers crossed someone is available to help me. In the meantime, if anyone has any ideas please, please can you help?!

No tips for your stumpery, but I did stumble across the idea of Hügelkultur. And will probably use the technique at some point. Something akin to digging a trough, temporarily placing the spoil aside, filling the hole with wood offcuts, then covering back over with the spoil. The wood becomes a sponge eventually and composts, breaks down and can benefit plants planted above.

The buried wood in large compost piles I have had, have decomposed remarkably well. When I fell a couple of trees next year, I'll certainly be returning them to the ground.

This video might be useful.

I have made a mini one and planted with foxgloves, violets, bluebells and ferns.

The "fullish sun" bit is throwing me. I think stumperies tend to go for the vibe of "there was a tree here, but it fell down and I didn't artificially put this timber here, no siree" i.e. a woodland vibe. Therefore you would be thinking of early-spring plants (esp bulbs), stuff that comes out before the leaf canopy creates too much shade.
A stumpery isn't a fullish sun thing. Maybe you need to plant some trees at the back.

Guess I shouldn't call it a stumpery 😂
Let's just call it a planting area with obstacles, a sunstump.
@senua unfortunately the trees aren't going to add much shade and we can't really add any more trees. To be honest the tree that was there was lovely, but a leylandii that was on it's last leg.
I've added a pic to show the boundary, all behind white line is next door.
Edit to say, re shade, there is a sumac in the middle of the wood, which was damaged during the work, it's got one bud and might grow back but that's a few years away.

LOL @ sunstump.

You could treat it as a rockery: have another video

but rockeries usually have alpines, which are plants that thrive above the tree line. However, your base is tree-stump rather than bare rock/scree! I suppose you could head for the alpine section of the garden centre and ask for advice.

I think the main thing is to ask for drought-tolerant plants which, luckily for you, seem to be a current buzz in the gardening world.

@senua thanks for the great video, I've always thought of alpines as kind of small odd looking plants but that video has possibly converted me.
PS dh sitting next to me has said loggery which is maybe better 😂

Neighbour has just pointed out that I might need to get plants that like quite acidic soil because the wood is leylandii. Does anyone know if that sounds right?

@ungarden has a stumpery… I’m flagposting in case she can offer wisdom ☺️

Also yesterday’s episode of Gardeners world had a segment about alpines which could be of interest.

@Koulibiak thank you! I record gw and save for Sunday viewing so will check out the alpines.
Popped into local garden centre earlier, Pengelly, Cornwall and they were great, gave me a load of ideas, picked up a couple of plants to start with, a Convolvulus cneorum silverbush, lavender, Euryops pectinatus, thyme and vinca and going to look into foxgloves and a few others that they suggested.

@Noviceplanter I love a stumpery, some of my stumps are partly in full sun - you can work around it.
I would choose a colour scheme and decide whether you want to go jungle or Mediterranean - the full sun aspect might make that decision for you.
I like lots of foliage with the odd flower to give a pop of colour.
I've gone for woody-jungle, lots of green with a sprinkling of white and deep purple. Libertia is happy in full sun- strappy evergreen with flowers about 50cm high that dance in the wind - I've got the white and blue versions. Green mondo grass, very low-growing. Iris, agapathas. Some ferns can tolerate a bit of sun - especially when planted densely. Fatsia japonica might give you some shading and is happy in every situation, it seems. Snowflakes have also worked - bigger than sonwdrops and flower a bit later. I have also become slightly obsessed with mini conifers, which are very happy in full sun and come in all shapes and sizes. There's a pretty good range in B&Q.
If you decide to go woody-Mediterranean, you'll want to do towards grasses like Koeleria glauca - with a silvery bluish tinge and the odd flower dancing in the wind, have a look at Beth Chatto's garden for some inspiration.

you could make them into a circle of seats and put a fire pit in the middle.

@ungarden thank you very much for taking the time to post.
A ton of great ideas, I'm going to take some time to research. The Libertia in particular are a great shout.