We’ve all read about how nature does remarkable things to help care for and nurture its own. Research reveals new and exciting examples of this every year it seems. I love how we can learn from these findings and actually mimic some of Mother Nature’s neat tricks when caring for our own gardens.

A little cedar grows from a nurse log on our woodland property, April, 2024, Bruce Peninsula.

Nurse logs to the rescue

You may have encountered a nurse log doing its thing while you were out hiking in a forest. A nurse log is a dead tree, usually fallen over, that’s now hosting a seedling (see above). You can also find nurse trees (dead but still standing, also called a snag) and nurse stumps but I find they’re less common.

The rotting wood from a downed tree can make an excellent seedbed for a young conifer seedling as well as other plants. Here are a bunch of reasons why:

• Predator protection: A seedling is less likely to get munched by a deer or elk or what have you if it’s raised up and out of the way (basically in a place considered by critters to be not likely for good foraging).
• Food and water: There’s a load of accessible nutrition in one giant log-shaped package which is almost always moist due to decaying wood’s capacity to make like a sponge.
• Better light: Having that little height boost means a seedling is raised above leafy ground-covers that might block its sunlight.
• Cooperative advantages: Friendly fungal partners such as mycorrhizae can be more easily found, especially for a conifer seedling, in a log that was, once, also a conifer.
• More bad stuff avoidance: If a conifer is growing from the remains of another conifer, it’s more likely not to encounter pathogens that could be in the soil.

Inspirations for your garden

Should you plant a new tree in the stump or log of an old tree? Most experts I surveyed are in agreement that, even though you sometimes see this in nature, it isn’t a good idea to try this literally in the garden. There are just too many problems that little seedling will have to overcome including getting enough space for proper root growth. Seedlings growing au naturel in a forest have all the time in the world to grow and it’s really no biggie if they don’t make it at all. But you probably want to see your new tree grow and thrive. So, instead, learn from nature and apply a few hacks.

MAKE HOMEMADE MULCH: Dead wood will break down into much needed nutrients for a new tree (or shrub or plant) so if you have some in your garden, try breaking it up and using the small pieces as homemade mulch. This kind of mulch, by the way, is way better than treated store-bought mulch that is dyed (which can lead to soil and water contamination) and is designed to break down much more slowly.

ENCOURAGE YOUR NURSE LOG TO KEEP ON NURSING: If you happen to have a log already in your garden, you are in luck. You can plant up any open crevices with a variety of mosses or small annuals. If you want to get more ambitious, you can drill out a large hole or several holes for planting a variety of flowers, essentially making your log a gigantic planting container.

MIMIC THE LOOK OF WILDERNESS: If you’re in the process of starting a stumpery, a log can act as a visual tie between stumps and give your stump arrangement a nice horizontal accent as well as making a stump collection look even more like a scene from the deepest depths of a magical forest.

Nurse rocks forever on duty

A nurse rock doesn’t have a plant growing out of it like a nurse log would but it does offer many of the services of a nurse log. The beauty of nurse rocks is that they don’t have to be nearly as big as a log so they’re much easier to move into place and basically any ol’ rock the size of your head or larger will do.

Even perennials and shrubs touted as extremely drought tolerant need care and coddling when they are young and not well established. You need to encourage a strong root system and good growth first and this is where nurse rocks really rock. Sorry.

A well-positioned nurse rock provides:

• shade for the plant’s crown and rootball during the sunniest (read: hottest) time of the day to keep the soil cool
• water retention in the soil
• protection from wayward foot traffic, lawn mowers and whipper snippers

The key to a successful nurse rock is, as you may have already caught on, in its positioning. Place the stone to the southwest of the plant near but not up against its stem. Putting the stone to the southwest ensures it’s between the plant and the hotter, afternoon sun. Anyone living in the Southern Hemisphere should, of course, be ignoring this and putting their nurse rock to the northwest.

A nurse rock will not only keep the ground beneath it cooler and moister for longer but it can actually deliver additional moisture. As night sets in and the air cools, condensation can occur on the rocks surface which then drips onto the soil around it. If the nurse rock is on the larger side, it’ll even work to protect a plant from wind or drifting snow.

Finding the right nurse rock for your plant patient is pretty much like match-making. Here are three tips.

1. You want a rock that will enhance the overall style of your garden–smooth and water worn for a beach-y garden, perhaps appealingly sculptural for a Japanese-themed garden.

2. Choose the rock’s size based on the plant you’re matching it up with. You want the rock to cast shade on the plant’s root ball and stem but not on any of its leaves. Obviously, a larger plant or tree will appreciate a larger rock while smaller plants, say a young shrub, may need a rock that’s the size of a softball.

3. Remember that relationships don’t always last forever. You can always switch out your nurse rocks for bigger ones as their patient grows.