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permaculture - [permaculture] Re: Branches and small diameter wood

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  • From: Scott Pittman <pci@permaculture-inst.org>
  • To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [permaculture] Re: Branches and small diameter wood
  • Date: Wed, 26 Mar 2003 11:17:36 -0700

I am fortunate to have a landfill that will chip my trimmings and reload it in my truck gratis. I use these chips for walkways in the garden and to mulch fruit trees. I am concerned about bringing home disease or bugs from someone elses' garden, but, knock on wood, hasn't happened yet. It takes a few years for this to break down further even tho it is in the wet zone of our kitchen garden, worms seem to prefer it under the walkways of chipped wood to the straw mulch of the planting beds. The soil under the walkways is richer than the beds after three years, but we are not mining the nutrients of this zone with plants. Perhaps I should rotate the beds and walkways.

Small diameter wood is perfect for the Russian Stove, and allows the small homesteader to become self sufficient in fuel wood. To revisit an old topic on this list Jean Paine developed a system of creating wood alcohol from his wood chips as well as heating his house with the heat generated from composting his chipped branches. His book is wonderful but a little too large scale for the small landholder.

I also clean up the small branches and store them for use as tomato baskets, trellises, and to make shade structures (ramadas - rama being branch in Spanish) for greens and peas. They can also be used to create bundles that work as surface swales when laid on contour, not as efficient as earth swales but in a broad steep landscape work well. They also create wonderful habitat for ground birds when piled up, a few thorny branches of Russian Olive, Rose, or raspberry on the perimeter help fight off coon, skunk, and coyote who love bird eggs.

Scott

At 01:56 AM 3/26/03 -0500, you wrote:
line the walkways between my raised kitchen garden beds with corrugated c=
ardboard to keep the weeds down. I just walk on top of the cardboard; there=
's no wood chips to make it look pretty. A single layer of cardboard on the=
ground lasts more than one season.

I would love to get good at reducing branches and small diameter wood into =
useful material. There's a dozen tree trimmers who would love to haul me lo=
ads on a daily basis this time of year thru fall. Right now it all goes to =
the landfill. Short of chipping it and spreading as mulch, we use it for an=
imal habitat. I've got enough rabbits, could use more snakes other than rat=
tlers.


Paul
12" annual precip
USDA zone 5
90 days frost free
7400 feet elevation




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