Some ideas work out better than others. In an earlier attempt to control arbor vitae shrubs-that-had-become-trees in my garden two years ago, (see Cuttin' O' the Green, 3-15-12,) I sawed off one large specimen three feet above the ground, intending to finish the job at ground level. The stumps, however, made a flat platform perfect for a birdbath. I happened to have a birdbath lacking its pedestal. Voila! The proverbial marriage made in heaven.
I set the concrete dish on the stumps and left all the greenery at the bottom. It was gorgeous. There was only one problem: the tree kept right on growing and pretty soon the birds couldn't find the birdbath. This year, in my ruthless pruning, I decided the stumps were going to go, once and for all. To get to them, however, I had to first prune away the lower branches. I decided the stumps themselves were quite beautiful and possibly even sculptural. I decided to a few boughs around the top might make it look like a topiary birdbath. I have now decided it looks scrawny and not all that beautiful. Birds, however, have decided differently. What was a secret birdbath is secret no longer. The only secret is whether or not it will ever look like a topiary.
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