A Simple Flower Bed from a Dead Tree

Growing just off our front porch was an old apple tree. Although it still produced apples and new growth, the tree was dying from the inside out. A broken out knot in the tree revealed that bugs had been eating it away.

Deciding to cut down the apple tree, my boyfriend Jessy grabbed a chainsaw and went to work. First, off came the branches, and then down went the trunk. Now, we already knew the tree was dying, what we did not know was the inside was hollow from the bottom of the trunk to the top.

Jessy cut up parts of the tree using some for our lizard cage and some for firewood. With a remaining three-foot section, he cut it in half long ways and after a little thought, he created a unique flowerbed. Here is how he did it.

Materials used:

1. A dying apple tree

2. A chain saw

3. Potting soil

4. Plants

5. Old Tonka's

Using the nicer of the two tree halves, he filled it with 'Super Soil' potting soil. Next he picked the plants he wanted to use. Instead of going to the local nursery and purchasing new plants, he used ones we had around the yard. Some he pulled from terra cotta pots and another from a crowded flower bed. He decided were he wanted to plants then put gently them in the soil. Next he water, the soil was packed down and more added were needed.

Since the trunk had been cut on either end, the soil would spill out the sides when watered. To fix this, he placed a thin piece of wood at one end as a blockade, while the other end was allowed to spill over into the bucket of an old metal Tonka tractor. Jessy added soil to the tractor bucket and placed one end of a ground cover plant from the tree trunk into it. This is my most favorite part of the flower bed.

With the plants in place the last thing to do was add some yard decorations. For this he used another very old, metal Tonka tractor. This he places in the middle of the bed partially in and out of a plant. In front of the flower bed he made a row, the length of the bed, with rock he located around the yard.

The end result was a very creative, and cheap flower bed.