What would you plant here?

[janedoe]

My neighbor who has effectively abandoned his home and left me to do as I like with his property has a prime sunny spot that I would like to put a few veg plants on. However, it is a former tree stump that was ground down a few years ago. It's about five feet in diameter. It was really squishy because of the rotting wood chips so I put in a bunch of topsoil to make it more stable. Then I planted three hydrangeas. They did not take. This may have been because these were discount plants but they seemed to be very healthy when I planted them. My concern is that the underlying rotting wood is causing a problem with the roots of new plants.

So now it's been three years and I'm wondering if it makes sense to plant squash in that area. Or pumpkins. Any thoughts?

[Jollymolly]

Id throw seed see if it takes. pumpkins seem to not care too much

[janedoe]

Great. I've never done much with pumpkins before so that's good to know.

[Maxx&Emma]

Is the entire area that can be planted the large chewed up tree stump? If it is I wonder how much would actually grow there, I wouldn't think there would be enough soil to support plants and the tree roots and rotting wood would choke out any plants that actually went in healthy. If that is the case, can the tree stump/rotting wood/roots be removed?

[janedoe]

Yes. The entire area is the chewed up tree stump. That was before my time. It's been rotting for about three years. I dumped a boatload of topsoil on it two years ago, enough to stabilize the area. It's near an old well so I don't want to mess with that. I would rather dump more on it than dig anything out. There are kids in the area so I don't want to create a potentially dangerous situation.

[SunDance]

Some trees, like walnut, will keep things from growing in "their" soil.

[doubledip1]

It's not a good idea, and especially not to plant vegetables on top of an old, rotted-out stump. I would stick to something inedible, like your hydrangeas again. You will need to supplement heavily with nitrogen.

[POPTOP]

I've got the same problem where the maple was taken down and the stump ground down. Right now it's a pile of chips but hostas are growing like crazy there even in the full sun. I've just picked up some zinnias and marigolds to cover the spot. It's only been about a 1 1/2 so I'll just mask it best I can for a few more years.

[Snowshoe]

It's not a good idea, and especially not to plant vegetables on top of an old, rotted-out stump. I would stick to something inedible, like your hydrangeas again. You will need to supplement heavily with nitrogen.

Why not?

[doubledip1]

Why not?

Fungus risks