What to do with all the branches/limbs on the ground?

[gammaut]

Hello! Having grown up in a big city with a lot of apartments and not so many trees, I am a bit overwhelmed by the first house I have ever bought. At the back and in one its sides there is what I consider to be a small forest. This was one of the main factors that led me to the decision to buy this house, and I did it knowing that I would have to learn a lot in order to be able to take care of it. Given that little background and the fact I still don't know anything about taking care of trees or gardening, I would like to get some advice regarding one question I have at the moment:

• I’ve realized that some people are using (or have used) my “forest” as a deposit for limbs and branches. Although I know this is not trash and can be actually good for the soil, I don’t like the unnatural appearance of having a lot of branches/limbs piled on top of one another. Should I chip them and release the chipped wood back to the soil? Or I should hire someone to get rid of them?

Thank you very much!

 

[hedge hog]

I mow anything under two inch and the bigger I burn or pile to rot


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Tripp]

You could contact the town/city you live in and see if they have any provisions for bulk yard waste removal.
For a small fee, they may take care of it cheaper than hiring an outside service.
T

 

[ironman_gq]

See if your city has a compost dump. They usually take that stuff for free and either chip it or pile it for compost, along with lawn clippings and leaves and any other yard waste you have.

 

[BC WetCoast]

See if your city has a compost dump. They usually take that stuff for free and either chip it or pile it for compost, along with lawn clippings and leaves and any other yard waste you have.

Nice, here its $7 minimum load and $70/tonne.

 

[Jim Timber]

How big of property and how much slash are we talking about?

I burn stuff I want gone quickly. Use the ash on your garden.

 

[Ted Jenkins]

Right now I am working on a small ranch that is about 18 acres. One of the owners asked me to look at his pasture area for removing all of his dead Oak trees. The Oak part is better than great, but the pasture area is void of any bio material to protect the soil. Consequently the property is a ecological disaster. The horses were allowed to over graze the land and the owner made no effort to replenish the soil with any bio material so most of the once beautiful acreage is void of any new growth. In just six months the area where as I spread the wood chips has shown signs of life. Putting bio material back in to the soil protects the soil from erosion and promotes healthy vegetation. You may have a small parcel of land, but the soil will be most happy with plenty of bio material put back into the recycle process. Maybe you could hire or rent a small wood chipper to grind up any debris left on you property. Wood chips degrade into the soil and minimize unwanted weeds. Thanks

 

[Mustang71]

I throw all my branches back into the woods among with leaves. Sometimes I throw them in the fire pit and let them sit until I'm ready to burn them. I figure it came from the woods so put it back there. I have an ash pile from my wood burner in the woods too.

 

[Jackbnimble]

Hello! Having grown up in a big city with a lot of apartments and not so many trees, I am a bit overwhelmed by the first house I have ever bought.

• Should I chip them and release the chipped wood back to the soil? Or I should hire someone to get rid of them? Thank you very much!

From Mike McGrath of You Bet Your Garden, heard on PBS on Saturday mornings, and former editor of Organic Gardening.

"I've used wood chips from my own trees and the local power company's tree-trimming crews to keep the weeds down in the lanes between my own raised beds. You could also pile the chips up a foot or two deep as a 'killing mulch' to try and smother something like a patch of running bamboo after you scalped it low to the ground.

But don't use wood mulch within thirty feet of a house or car because any wood mulch can breed the artillery fungus that stains those expensive objects with zillions of little tar ball-like spores.
And don't use wood or bark as a mulch underneath disease-prone plants like tomatoes, roses and lilacs for the same basic reason; wood is the perfect incubator for fungal spores, including ones that spread disease, like black spot. Compost makes a great mulch for any plant, but it's absolutely essential for these and other Drama Queens of the Garden.
In fact, I'll go further and add that compost—your own properly made black gold or store bought—should always be your first choice for mulching raised beds and other forms of vegetable growing gardens. And wood mulch should be the last choice. As documented in this previous Q of the Week, a massive study conducted by three different Universities found that two inches of compost prevented weeds just as well as two inches of shredded bark, but the compost mulched plants thrived, while the wood mulched plants suffered.
Compost rules! Wood mulch drools!"