The Craftiest Workshop

Last fall I had cleaned up a few areas of fallen trees and broken branches. Because I had my brother’s dog Coco with me all the time, I decided to just pile everything in many piles and deal with it in the spring. Coco would get underfoot and I was constantly watching that I wouldn’t hit him with a branch when moving a big log.

April was the cleaning up month. I went back to those piles and started to move the branches to my branch piling area in the front of our yard.

I had a lot of fair sized trees that I needed a plan for so I came up with some repurposing projects. I like to use what is available on our property.

The first thing I thought to do was make a hot bed type box for the pine branches that I had piled at the entrance to our pond area. I had cut the lower pine branches last year to leave enough room for the push mower to get underneath. The squirrel had also trimmed many branches this winter as he chewed off pinecones. I stacked the trees I had collected from in the tree line closer to the house, in a log cabin style.

Another project I thought of was to make us a small bridge across the creek. Even though it is dry most of the year, you have to step down and then back up to cross that area. It is quite jarring on the hips even when using a walking stick. We had some bucked pieces from a large tree the had fallen so I laid those on their sides. I laid a few smaller trees beside those; more for the look than anything else.

I have used many trees, in areas where I found them, to line paths. This helps us remember where to mow but also seems to keep the weeds and grass from encroaching past that point.

I took four long thin trees and made two ladders. Once we have more dirt in the garden beds, I plan to add one on either side then put branches across the top to make an arbor.

As we were running out of repurposed wood and garden season was fast approaching, I decided to use more trees to create garden beds. Basically I laid down cardboard and framed it with the trees then filled with soil. We had dirt delivered this week. I have made five of those type of garden beds so far with plans for another two.

You may have noticed the wire fence.
We put that up just yesterday, 300 ft of fencing.
At 6.5ft, it should keep the deer out.

We still have to design a gate but are using the plastic netting that we had around the Haskaps as a temporary gate.

There was a deer in the yard this morning munching on dandelions OUTSIDE the garden area so the fence is already doing its job.

As garden season begins and the mosquitoes come out, I will stop collecting deadfall until September. It is definitely a spring/fall activity. Clearing out those trees has already proven to allow better light to reach the wild Saskatoon and raspberry patches. The other trees around are healthier and there is more space to move around for both ourselves and the deer and moose.
I love seeing the positive outcomes from doing that work.