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My moto is recycle my garden & pocket likes it
nin
Posts: 216
I have built my garden edging raised beds from various sites for mainly free. old decking that cost nothing and scrubbed up well made great lawn edging. raised beds for free from used scaffold. the list goes on
Now i have three 40 foot L word that should not be named conifer trees being cut down as they are to big take all the light and are very ugly.
I want to re-use them in the garden and wondered is there any reason the branches cant be used as bark chippings, stumps sliced for stepping stones, thick poles for pergolar and tin for squash and bean growing.
Am a little worried these monsters might be toxic
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Sounds like a good plan to recycle your conifers. Why would you think they might be toxic.
Using bark chippings for paths is ok, our council have just dropped off tonnes of Christmas Tree bark chippings for the allotments, I'm sure if it wasn't ok someone would have complained
zoomer44 its just something in the back of my head that leylandi bark chippings are toxic to plants
The only part of your plan that I can see a problem with is using the thick poles for a pergola. Unless they are given time to dry out before cutting to size they will probably twist and distort in a short time.
If you leave them to season for a year you can do what you want with the off cuts. Chipping the rest is a good idea, added to a compost bin they rot quite quickly. Fresh chipped wood isn't a good mulch IMHO, bark is better.
I think I heard somewhere that conifers chipped up could make the ground acidic. Might be worth looking into if your particularly bothered about the soil acidity.
I have been saving large branches. I have an idea in mind to make fencing or a gate with them.
I hired a pretty serious chipper for about £80 a day last year. It takes anything up to a 3" square fence post. That'd make short work of most of it. Smaller branches could be cut and used as log piles.
IMHO stumps cut as stepping stones are really ugly and very slippy when wet and generally a nuisance when mowing .
Kieran it might be the making the ground acidic that i had in the back of my head, not sure how that would work where i am as ground is very non acidic you cannot grow an azalea or rhododendron and god did my dad try for years.
Seasoning some of the posts i had considered for future use and using some now for instant effect.
Hiring a chipper might be cheaper than getting somebody to chip for me and sounds like a good idea.
I like the idea of fencing or a gate but not sure if my diy is up to this pergola first.