By PAUL WHEATON
Keep those branches, twigs, rotten logs, and Christmas trees!
That stuff is gardener’s gold! Organic matter!
Winter is the season for pruning trees. Sometimes taking out dangerous trees. I am mystified when people haul the wood away and in the sping they spend money for mulch.
And equally mystified by people that rent an obnoxious, loud, smelly chipper.
here is a quick list of a dozen things that can be done with that wood, keeping it on your property and not having to fool with a chipper.
1. Make your own mulch: A huge branch can be reduced to flat mulch in about two minutes with a pruner. I usually clip at the bends in the tigs and branches. A huge pile of branches and twigs will become about 30 times smaller in 15 minutes.
2. Cover it in soil to make hugelkultur.
This is best with the logs (green logs work too) and thick branches. This makes for a richer soil that needs less watering. Some people have built tall raised garden beds with this technique and they have a normal garden that doesn’t need water all summer. This is an excellent use for a stump - no need to pull it or grind it, just cover it with soil.
3. In Finland they use small branches and twigs between muddy spots and the house. You can make a muddy spot less muddy, or you can create a place near the house to wipe your feet.
4. Put the wood in a dry place for a while and then use it for firewood.
Rocket stove technology can heat a home with 90% less wood than a conventional wood stove. So little, that many homes are heated with nothing but tree trimmings that come out of a small yard.
5. If you keep chickens, nothing makes better deep chicken bedding than pine, fir or spruce boughs.
6. Butterfly/bird/wildlife habitat: Just make a big brushpile. This provides habitat for butterflies to lay eggs, and a variety of beneficial insects and other critters. Most permaculture practitioners keep a brushpile somewhere in their yard because they believe that it reduces pest damage for the rest of their garden.
6.1. Snag or stump for wildlife
7. Criss-crossing branches in a compost pile helps to aerate it.
8. With a bit of jute, it’s a snap to make a twig trellis or arbor for your garden. Usually in about ten minutes. And when they get old, you can mulch the branches and the jute together.
9. If you have some wood shop skills, you can make chairs, furniture, name tags, coasters, bird houses, benches, planter box, tool handles, coat racks and so much, much more. And if the wood is living black locust wood, whatever you do with that will last about ten times longer outdoors than cedar without a drop of paint or stain.
10. garden stakes
11. Throwing branches and logs into ponds will usually reduce algae problems and give fish and amphibians a place to hide from predators.
12. marshmallow/hotdog sticks!
A lot of this stuff is effectively sequestering your own carbon! It could be a massive step toward your own personal carbon neutrality.
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BIO: Paul Wheaton is is the tyrannical ruler of two on-line communities. One is about permaculture and one is about software engineering. There is even one for Missoula. Paul has written several permaculture articles starting with one on lawn care that he presented at the MUD Project 17 years ago, including articles on raising chickens, cast iron and diatomaceous earth. Paul also regularly uploadspermaculture videos and permaculture podcasts. In his spare time, Paul has plans for world domination and is currently shopping for a hollowed out volcano in the Missoula area, with good submarine access.
See all of Paul’s contributions to MakeitMissoula on this Blog Homepage here.
I wonder about attracting termites by burying the wood under soil, especially in the southern states?
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In permaculture, the best solution for something like that is to wait for the termite predators to show up.
In cold climates, hugelkultur has been shown to be the best. But in really warm regions, it can be a toss between hugelkultur and biochar.
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Great blog.
What would you suggest for coastal L.A. – bio jar or hugelkulture? Do you think we’d have to water in summers here in Malibu?
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LA as in “Los Angeles”? I would say that in such a warm place hugelkultur is easier to implement, but it won’t last as long as biochar. If i were doing it, it would depend on a lot of factors. There is a good chance that I would make a hugelkultur bed with biochar in it.
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I agree. Also, you could try surface-charring your wood then burying that. The poly-cyclic hydrocarbons (aromatics) slow down microbial composition. But, they’ll still retain water. (A word of caution though. During the first year, they’ll repel water until the char is colonized by bacteria and fungi.)
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[...] :My Friend, Paul Wheaton’s Blog: [...]
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[...] from last year, I’ll need to purchase the seed for most of this, which makes for a fairly substantial capital outlay. This of course got me thinking about how I can cut down on expenses, and while I probably don’t need 7 varietals of Melons, I’m eager to test as many varietals as possible to see what works well for us here. So how else can I cut my expenses? With 26 raised beds needing to be constructed and filled with good soil, it started to look like I was going to have to start the daunting task of reigning it in. My spirits were lifted as I started combing Craigslist’s free page for materials and started in on some more research through a couple of Permaculture websites suggested by a friend while visiting him in Durango, CO on our way back from California. He pointed me towards Paul Wheaton’s work in the permaculture community which I’ve been aggressively consuming since arriving home. His work with Hugelkultur is inspiring and I highly suggest taking a look at his article on the subject in Make It Missoula here. [...]
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Hugulculture works well in the Rockies because we have wet springs and hot, dry summers. In the spring, raised beds are useful because they shed water (as opposed to sunken beds) to the advantage of the many plants that don’t want wet feet. But in the summer they dry out. In the summer, sunken beds are useful because they conserve water (less surface to volume ratio and lower). But… you can’t have both. But, hugelculture provides a third alternative. During spring, the wood wicks away water (via capillary action) from the root zones – which remain moist but not wet. During the summer, the soil wicks the water from the wood – and again, remains moist rather than dry. THe best of both worlds.
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[...] av med alla stora stubbar efter träden vi fällde framför köksfönstret; det ska helt enkelt bli odlingsbäddar på dom! På med alla löv som krattats ihop senaste veckan, ett tjockt lager jord & sedan är det [...]
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[...] lard is healthfood“. You try to recycle cans and plastic… Paul shows us “how to recycle wood” and reduce our need for water in a garden. Think you want to raise chickens for eggs? Yup, [...]
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