Well, I fell and fell hard for a weeping birch at local nursery. Over $200 is just out of the budget for now. But I'm starting a coin bank to buy one in a few years. By then, the stumps should be fairly well rotted.
So - my neighbor and I will do the "drill the stump and add the high nitrogen horse poop" thing. I might cover it with a trap or landscape fabric, while we move other things (moving questions in an other post) and gather large rocks and dig a footing for the raised bed.
So by late spring, we'll have the bed more or less ready. I'm going to move my zebra grass (which really needs a new home anyway) there and maybe have several pots of vines (annual ones) so stick around a trellis or pole with a wind chime and some ???
So by summer, I should have an idea of how much of my shade I lost and a new bed to decorate.
Cheryl