The National Trust owned Sizergh Castle Gardens in Kendal has opened a new stumpery.
Using Victorian garden design, an overgrown area of the garden has been brought back to life using more than 20 tree stumps positioned decoratively.
The stumpery is the first large-scale development on the estate for almost a century.
The stumpery also displays a selection of Sizergh’s four national collections of fern, alongside a variety of new plants.
Over the past two years gardeners and volunteers have been working on the stumpery, which covers a 480 metre squared area.
The new stumpery path leads on through new borders filled with winter and early spring plantings and links on to the existing herbaceous border path.
The stumps that have been used are mainly broadleaf, including beech, sycamore and ash, in the hope that these will be the best lasting and most characterful roots.
More about stumperies and Sizergh
Stumperies originate from the late Victorian era. They were seen as a fashionable way to display and grow ferns.
Owners of estates would clear areas in order to make gardens and instead of getting rid of tree stumps they would reuse them and arrange them in various positions to show the roots.
The new stumpery at Sizergh Castle Gardens is now open to visitors.
Sizergh is a country house inhabited by the Strickland family who have been associated with Sizergh since 1239 when Elizabeth Deincourt married William de Strickland.
For more information visit www.nationaltrust.org.uk/sizergh/features/a-new-garden-area-for-sizergh or www.nationaltrust.org.uk/sizergh.
