One of our courtyard gardens has had a lovely Kousa Dogwood tree growing in it for decades, shown here last fall, with a backdrop of naturalized rudbeckia on the hillside behind it. It was planted in the 1960s by a former owner who visited our home last summer, and told me that she and her husband planted the tree to commemorate the birth of their daughter.




Unfortunately, the tree was struck by lightning last year, and it refused to leaf out this spring, and all the branches were dry and brittle. We had an arborist inspect it, and he confirmed the strike completely killed the tree, so we decided to have it cut down. But I decided to get creative, and told the tree surgeon to leave about 30 inches of the trunk in place, so that I might make a bird bath out of it. Sure enough, I knew just the nursery to visit this past weekend, which has lots of bird baths and fountains, and I found the perfect top for it, shown below. I'm glad I was able to leave at least part of the tree in place.

Great job, Mike! That was so nice of you to do that!

I agree-excellent garden karma, IMO,plus fun and creative idea for a truly unique piece!

The nice thing about Kousa dogwoods is that they produce exceptionally large berries, which are not only edible (I've tried them, not bad), but they self-sew quite easily. Normally I pull up the seedlings that start each year, but left three of them in place on the adjacent hillside, which have already reached about two feet in height. I'm going to give one of them to the former owner, and another to her daughter, and keep one for myself.