I’ve noticed that many gardeners are afraid of dead wood—not the dead wood on live shrubs and trees, which can be a sign of disease, but dead wood like old logs etc. used ornamentally, strewn on the ground.
My backyard garden is full of old logs and dead wood used decoratively.
Well, I’d like to advocate for the practice of including logs and other old wood in the garden! Our backyard woodland garden is full of decorative old wood that serves a crucial function as habitat. (Some of the old wood has sentimental value, too, but that’s a story for another time…okay, I can i.d. most of our old Christmas tree trunks in the yard, and I love having them there!)
It’s amazing to see all the LIFE this dead wood supports! Beetles, bees, ants, hover flies, digger wasps, decomposer organisms, birds galore! Fungi in every shape, size and colour erupt after every rainfall.
All this life is not something to be afraid of. It’s a sign that the garden is working!
I collect dead wood everywhere. Branches that come down in parks. Pruning from healthy trees in the yard. Branches that break off in windstorms. Healthy neighbourhood trees that have been cut down for one reason or another (usually a tragedy, as far as I’m concerned).
Yes, it’s important to avoid wood from diseased trees, or wood infested with termites, but there is a lot of healthy wood around for the taking. Arborists are another good source.
I use wood to line paths, to create focal points, to support floppy plants and a cup of coffee—there’s no end to the potential uses.
And every once in a while there are surprises. We have a salvaged log that’s been dead for three years, and every year it sprouts leaves (seeds land in its crevasses). Talk about the life force in action.
I’m not sure it’s even accurate to refer to “dead” wood. It’s slowly decomposing, supporting all kinds of organisms, slowly returning its life to the soil.
I love the way that death brings life to the garden.