stumpery

Etymology

From stump + -ery.

stumpery means A garden feature similar to a rockery but made from parts of dead trees, especially stumps. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 91 out of 100.

Why this word is great

STUMPERY — [Noun] A garden feature composed of tree stumps, roots, and logs arranged as a structural habitat for shade-loving ferns and mosses. From stump (from Middle English stumpe, meaning "the base of a felled tree") + the noun-forming suffix -ery (denoting a place for or collection of something). Unlike a "rockery," which builds an ascetic, mineral order from stones, or a "fernery," which can be any dedicated enclosure, a stumpery is a deliberate cathedral of decay. It is the cathedral nave of a toppled oak cradling a colony of ferns, the gnarled, elephantine root mass turned vertical cliff-face for creeping moss, and the hollow log, soft with rot, becoming a tender bed for seedlings—a quiet argument that life most lushly inhabits what has been finished.

noun

A garden feature similar to a rockery but made from parts of dead trees, especially stumps.