Back in February, the power company had come along our road cutting trees that were under the power lines. One of the spots they were cutting was just across the road from our house. They cut small aspen trees and just laid them neatly on the snowbank at the edge of the road.
I had a project in mind when I saw these smaller perfectly straight trees. Every day I would walk across the snow to grab a few trees and drag them back to our yard. At first the snow was hard enough that I could walk in boots and not sink in. Later on I switched to snowshoes and finally I had to skip the short route across the snow and drag them down the road and our driveway.
I ended up with about 30 trees in total.
The project I wanted to make is called a Dead Hedge. I needed some smaller freshly cut trees to make the fence for the hedge. I cut pieces about 7 feet long; some trees giving me two poles. I used a pick axe to create holes in our clay ground then pounded each in with a sledge hammer. Staggering the trees as I went, this is what it looked like after a few were in.
After getting the poles pounded in, I proceeded to start filling the hedge with the branches from the trees I had dragged from across the road.
For a few hours each day this week I carted piles of branches and deadfall that I had created over the past couple years. I made sure to break the branches down so there were straight pieces going into the hedge. It is still not yet full but I hope to complete it next week.
The extra trees, those too fat to use as poles, I used to create another enclosed compost pile. This one is now sitting next to the composter. I added in there the five gorilla carts worth of dead grass that I raked from the ditch. I also put in there the corn stalks and pea vines I had left to winter over in their garden beds.
The last thing I did with some of the smaller trees was to cut myself fresh garden markers. I have a small bin of 18” sticks that I will cut a slice off with the bandsaw so I can write on them with a sharpie.
Those trees were a blessing for sure. Not only did I use them to build the dead hedge but I was able to create a enclosure for all that dead grass and I got garden markers without having to go hunt for appropriate sticks in the bush.
The reason for building the dead hedge is to provide a nesting area for birds like the many sparrows we get in the summer. Bugs may decide to hide in there over the winter. The hedge also is a better edge for the lawn area (and I use that word loosely) than the fallen trees we have been using.