I would never plant a maple. I am so tired of gardening in dry shade. The dryness extends far beyond the tree canopy..

Okay.... so do you have any input on the river birch? I have just under an acre with 40 trees, so I'm used to shade! And actually I find the soil much drier in the sun. Thanks!

:)
Dee

If you have an acre, and you love Maples, wouldn't a Maple be closer to the size and canopy of the missing oak? Give you more shade? If I had an acre, I might want to put a Maple close to the lot line, so I could see it from the house and eventually the canopy would be a screen and offer shade on my lot, but I wouldn't be trying to garden right up against the trunk. If you want to grow vegetables, I would keep it far away from any vegetable garden. I put in raised beds for a vegetable garden what I thought was far enough away from Maples, but the roots of the Maple seek out the moisture and fertility of the vegetable beds. Every spring my beds fill up with tree roots. Very frustrating.

Have never grown a river birch.

Beautiful tree and beautiful daughter! :-)

I love the stump and am glad you left it.

I have had a lovely river birch for approximately 15 years or so, a multi-clump one. It is now roughly 30-40 feet tall and provides nice filtered shade, not the deep, solid shade of a maple or oak. The bark peels beautifully and adds visual interest, especially in winter.

However, it is located in a very moist area of my yard -- there actually is an underground brook beneath it, so it gets plenty of water always. But I have seen mature river birches planted around the local Cracker Barrel restaurant, with the highway and the parking lot surrounding them, and they don't seem to mind.

That said, my river birch constantly self-prunes by dropping slender branches -- NOT limbs, lol -- very thin ones, which means picking them up before mowing. This may bother you. I have a garden bed under this tree, and grow mostly shade/part shade plants there. They do fine, tho perhaps root competition tends to have them grow more slowly than in the rest of my yard. On the other hand, this tree's roots are not as bad as maples!

Oh, and this tree is located less than 25 feet from the corner of my house. So far storms have not posed a problem of any kind, altho we are 50 miles inland from the coast and have not had any hurricanes here (yet), so all is well, but who knows in the future? That can be said of any large tree, of course, and our property is surrounded by huge oaks and maples, so any of them including the river birch may succumb one day. Meanwhile, I love trees and will take my chances. Couldn't live in a tree-less place!

roxanna, I agree completely! Couldn't live in a tree-less place! PM2, thanks for your input. That was indeed one of my concerns, that the river birch wouldn't have the same shade canopy as the maple. But on the other hand I probably wouldn't live to see the full canopy of the maple anyway! The arborist told me my oak was about 200 years old. :(

And my vegetable garden is in the one small spot of sun I have. The gardens around and under the trees are perennial shade gardens. I want to plunk the new tree in pretty much the same spot as the old, so I don't have to move the gardens. And honestly there's not too much more room for yet another tree, to put it elsewhere. My husband said, just plant both! And I said... where??? LOL. I have almost an acre but I do indeed have at least 40 trees already.

And yes, its the maple roots I am concerned about. I never gardened under maples and I hear it can be difficult. So roxanna, you have given me some hope about the river birch! And as far as sticks - oh my goodness I think all we do now is pick up sticks. So that will be nothing new!

As far as being strong, I guess that's a roll of the dice these days with the weather. I'm about 30 miles inland (and that from LI Sound, not the actual ocean) and we are definitely not what would be considered a hurricane hotspot lol. But the last few years we've had a couple of bad (for New England) hurricanes and some pretty strong residual winds from others, as well, shockingly, as a few tornadoes in the area. I agree I will take my chances!

kitasei2, thank you! I LOVE my stump lol and am so glad I kept it, even if others come into the yard and question my decision. Gardeners will love it; others, who don't get it, and who think it's odd that I kept it, I just tell them it would have cost me another thousand bucks to cut it down, and they get THAT lol.

My main concern with the stump is that I thought perhaps when I had the tree company plant the tree, they would remove or at least partially remove the stump, ot at least some of the roots. Since there's no way I can do that, I am planting my little sapling, whatever I choose, in amongst the massive roots. I hope whatever I plant will do well. I take encouragement from my daily walk, where I see trees growing out of rocks, out of other trees, and in other inhospitable places. Time will literally tell.

Thanks for your input everyone! I'm leaning toward the river birch, mostly for it's quick growth rate. I just wish it were bigger now - it's not even the foot I thought it was. Another look showed it to be 7 inches lol.

Thanks!
:)
Dee

Dee ~ If you know someone with a chainsaw AND an artistic capability, you could hire him to carve your lovely huge stump into a work of art. Something with leafy vines spiraling around, perhaps. It will last for years, tho I don't know if you'd need to give it a protective coating of something, like Spar varnish or some such. A neighbor had a stump as big as yours that was carved into rather odd-looking faces about 12 years ago, and it has stood the test of time. Not particularly attractive, this case, but clever and it might be something for you to consider. If you do, PLEASE post photos!!!

=)

Roxanna funny you say that - my husband has been saying the same thing since we lost the tree! Unfortunately - although I haven't looked into it - that would probably cost as much as professionally putting in a new (sizable) tree, so if I had that money I'd rather do that. I know a few artistic people but I don't think they dabble in stumps lol. More like pastels and watercolors haha.

If we do find a way to do something artistic with the trunk I will certainly post pics!

:)
Dee

I agree with the idea of carving the stump into something creative, humorous even. Much cheaper than having it dug out. And the dead roots can rot in the ground and increase soil fertility. But I guess, wielding a chain saw to do it, sounds a little difficult. BUT - we were given an electric saw from one of our kids to use around the yard for taking care of branches etc. We use it a lot and it makes quick work out of a lot of things. It is much easier and safer to use than a chain saw. It won't cut through a stump like that of course, but it might carve out little pieces of the side of it. Just a thought.

If it were the right height, you could make it a platform for a birdbath. Or make a bottle tree out of it easy enough. Or carve a little fairy door out of the bottom of it. Or attach multiple bird houses to it in different colors and styles, like a bird 'town'. [g]. I do get carried away....lol.