Arbor and Gravel Path — explored 🙂 by Chickens in the Trees…
TheGardenLady is always looking for creative and inexpensive ideas for planters or to make something special for the garden.
With the storms that knocked down so many trees in our yards, I have been searching for uses of these trees other than having the arborist or the person cutting the fallen trees just cutting the trees and removing the trunks and branches. If you are creative you should be able to reclaim some of the tree material for yourself or for others to use. The people who haul away your trunks will probably make mulch of your trees and resell it or sell it as firewood. Of course, you can do that, too. But you might want to be a bit more creative. So look at your trees when they are down to try to see how you can recycle and reuse the material. Of course, if the tree was consumed by nasty insects like tree borers and you know that is what caused the tree’s demise, do not use those trees, just discard unhealthy trees. (see here) Use only trees you know to be healthy that were downed by a storm or that had to be removed for esthetic reasons.
One tree that fell on my property was a black walnut. I hated to see it removed by the people who cut it up; so I found a local man who is a hobbyist who makes turned bowls and offered the trunk to him. I love this wood turning art. I gave the wood turner my walnut tree trunk for free and in return he has promised me one of the bowls he will make from the wood. I am patient because he said it will take him a year or two to do this kind of work since he is a hobbyist.
I have always wanted to make furniture out of some of the stumps and am trying to figure out something interesting. I have also always wanted to have someone cut slices of the trunk to make stepping “stones” for my garden. In this case, not all wood really lasts when cut so one will probably have to polyurethane at least the cut sides. In a previous post, I spoke about how my mother would put a bowl planted with morning glory seeds to sit on a cut trunk left in the soil. The morning glories would cascade down the side of the trunk. Any flower that cascades would be effective.
I have seen very pretty flower “bowls” made out of carved logs. Here is one on Pinterest.  And This Old House has directions for making a planter out of a trunk of a tree.
Then there is the use of all the branches to make garden trellises, arbors, or “walls”. A local artist made an open work tree branch wall for a neighbor and everyone who drives by is totally smitten by this work of art. (see here)
If you have done something creative with your fallen trees or tree branches, please share photos with TheGardenLady.org