We had a very large maple tree that did not survive a tornado last year. It was broke up pretty bad and we tried to save it but it's starting to look like he didn't make it.
In trying decide what to do to repair this part of the yard I stumbled across a discussion were someone cut a dead tree off around 29" and put a table top on it. We thought that would be cool and after looking at it more decided maybe we could do an entire outdoor room around the table. Stone patio, fire pit, pergola, etc. So my question is can we dig around this now dead tree without destroying it? The ground slopes around the tree so I imagine the back area of the patio would need to be dug down maybe 2' with a retaining wall built to make it level. If we dig that much on the back side will we disturb the area too much? Will the root structure rot out and eventually the stone patio start settling? One thought was keeping the stone patio a distance from the stomp and use pea gravel or some type of crushed stone at the stump but we would still need to do some major excavating.
Any thoughts?
In trying decide what to do to repair this part of the yard I stumbled across a discussion were someone cut a dead tree off around 29" and put a table top on it. We thought that would be cool and after looking at it more decided maybe we could do an entire outdoor room around the table. Stone patio, fire pit, pergola, etc. So my question is can we dig around this now dead tree without destroying it? The ground slopes around the tree so I imagine the back area of the patio would need to be dug down maybe 2' with a retaining wall built to make it level. If we dig that much on the back side will we disturb the area too much? Will the root structure rot out and eventually the stone patio start settling? One thought was keeping the stone patio a distance from the stomp and use pea gravel or some type of crushed stone at the stump but we would still need to do some major excavating.
Any thoughts?