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What species is it? I would think that you could put some mushroom plug spawns in it and cover it with some burlap, then have a few years of mushrooms to eat, a table top might work, but I don't think its a particularly convinient spot to have a table, seems like it wouldn't be a comfortable place to sit. If this house will be in your family for a while it might also be a good idea to plant a tree in the stump (species like yellow birch do well) then in a number of years when the stump has rotted away there will be an interesting tree on stilts out there.

Can you chisel out a basin in it? Then you could make a planter. Upright and trailing annuals would be nice. I'd make a bed around it as well.
I had a similar situation at my old house. Three stumps sitting about 15 feet from my kitchen window. My son chisled basins in them. I planted a small blue spruce in one and filled the other two with annuals. Then I made a bed around them. By the time we sold the house, the blue spruce was 6' tall and the whole space was one of the nicest looking areas of our yard.

I would drill some holes, add some chemicals (or salt), wait a year, and have a big bonfire.

Boy, if that's what happened to the tree, I wonder what happened to the dog...?

Anyway, I'd agree to not be so quick to believe that you can't get rid of it. If you can chisel out a basin you might be able to chisel out the chain and then get it ground out. But even if you don't, and whether you burn it or let it rot, that stump is only a temporary fixture, so I wouldn't design too elaborately around it nor let it dicate what you do with the yard. If you want a garden or a tree there, then by all means use the basin idea. If you don't want a garden there, and the stump doesn't fit with whatever your plans there are, then find a way to get rid of it. Even if you grow annual vines over it until it rots.

I've heard that this works. Drill a bunch of holes into the stump and fill them with sugar. Wet it down and then cover with a thick layer of mulch.

The answer here is to put a wooden birdhouse on top. Or a little gazebo. Turn a lemon into lemonade!

A little teeny-weeny gazebo on top of the stump? For fairies or gnomes? Hehee.

BTW, the tree forum has lots of threads about making stumps go away. Some methods even involve urine.

Patty

IT HAS THE POTENTIAL of being a focal point in your backyard, but it needs height. I am imagining drilling out a deep well/hollow in its base, filling said well with good soil, and planting a variegated weigela that will grow tall fairly quickly, have clean variegated foliage for 3 seasons, and flower a long time in summer. you could also grow clematis up through this shrub.
best, mindy

I agree with karini.........(also, funny comment about the dog! LOL)

I'd take an ax, or cut around the area with a chain saw, get that chain out and then grind the stump down. It would give you more options of what you could then do with the yard.

Wow, I forgot to have these messages emailed to me and didn't realize I had gotten so many suggestions. I think what I'd like to do most is get rid of it entirely. However, if that's not possible, making it into a planter is a good idea. I just can't imagine the amount of work involved in digging out the center of what I believe was an oak tree.

Looks like a stump grinder could be driven right in there. You may not want to keep the hump the stump sits on either. I don't like to have stumps in plantings because they may foster honey fungus (Armillaria). If this was an old, already well rotted stump with native plants popping out of it, in a woodland garden I would keep it.

There's always someone around who carves with a chainsaw. How about commissioning a custom sculpture and then building the garden around it? Just key in Chainsaw sculpture and see what you come up with. You know the suggestion about lemons and lemonade...

hi, i just this afternoon stapled chicken wire to mine and then planted sweet autumn clematis to cover it. sure would be pretty on yours!

Just saw this addressed in a garden magazine. Attach chicken wire around the stump, extending up maybe 10" or so. Line this with damp moss and then fill with potting soil & plant. You can push trailing plants into the sides to help cover the wire till the plantings grow in & start overflowing the wire container. Hope this makes sense. It looked good in the magazine, but I can't remember which one I was reading!

I have a roited tree stump in my backyard, its about waist level, so I am going to chisel out the inside a few inches deep and turn it into a plant container! around the base I am turning that into a flower bed! I will use what nature gave me.