Local woods

**jimmy cee** 1/8/2015, 9:29 pm

Has anyone here ever considered using the top coating of material in your local woods ?
If that is where B.T.E.'s idea started why not.
With smaller beds, and as good as this material is supposed to be, it would be a healthy
project...Walking in the woods with buckets of what can be scooped up from the top level.
Then transfer them to your beds Local woods Woods10

**walshevak** 1/9/2015, 12:35 am

Also know as leaf mold or woods mold, it lies just under the loose leaves. Yes, there are several members who have used it. Plantoid come to mind immediately and I think is was recommended in some of the 2010 or 2011 posts. Composted leaves are a good addition.

Kay

Marc Iverson 1/9/2015, 1:04 am

We have a lot of disease hereabouts. I try to keep gardening tools used in one garden from those used in another, and not transfer soils from place to place either.

Because our sometimes strong rains and generally mild winters promote weed growth, people around here use huge amounts of Round-Up and much worse chemicals on their lawns and grounds. Not only does that likely all go down into the well water we drink out of, but it makes for soil and even fallen leaves I'm reluctant to think about messing with. For all the property owned by people with huge yards around us, and we have a few acres too, there's a surprisingly small amount of it I'd feel safe harvesting anything from.

One neighbor even occasionally garden bombs another with weed killer that gets into the air and then drifts on down to the next property and wipes out a tree or some such ...

**Kelejan** 1/9/2015, 1:58 am

I used a fair bit of it from my own hillside (roughly 100ft x 400 ft) due to having to wait for six months for the two loads of wood chips I had on order.
But that was a one-off, as I think the woodland floor belongs to the trees growing there.

For many years I collected the leaves from the birch trees growing along my property line next to the roadway. I think that I weakened them, taking and never giving back to them. The grass under them was impoverished as well. Since I have had the trees taken down do to them dying, the grass has rebounded and is getting thick after just one year of cutting the grass and leaving it where it lands.

I am looking forward to this year to see the results of me mulching and adding minerals and fungi and loads of leaves, compost, etc.

Marc Iverson 1/9/2015, 2:28 am

There's a lot to be said for that, too. All the raking and taking away that so many families around here have been doing for 20 years or more must be weakening the soil tremendously. I wonder if they'd get so many weeds if they weren't stripping the soil of its natural nutrition.

**sanderson** 1/9/2015, 3:34 am

I feel so bad that I have raked up the leaves for many years. I'm now trying to give back to the dirt what I took away (in the rest of the yard). To think I thought moldy leaves were yucky! Our tall Fescue lawn does not do well with leaves or grass clippings. But, I'm trying to make up for it in other ways: raw non-fat milk, molasses, and compost drippings. Embarassed

Jimmy, Beautiful photo.

**jimmy cee** 1/9/2015, 10:21 am

I live close to nothing but woods, I think I would try to find who owned the land , then get permission to scrape some off. Usually people are fine with something like that.
I had an old friend years ago that allowed me to go out in his woody area to cut some spindly trees I could use for fencing...LOL..
While I was doing this, a stranger approached me and asked what I was doing, pleasant enough, however I wondered why he was asking, he told me it was his property I was on....( was I ever embarrassed )
After explaining my friend told me it was his property and what I was using it for he told me take all I needed, he just wanted to find out what was going on...and I don't blame him.
Ended with a new friendship....

**Kelejan** 1/9/2015, 12:41 pm

That is at least three of us who after many years of raking up leaves under trees now understand that it is wrong without giving back to the trees.

Last year when my birch trees were felled, I put some of the wood chips, over compost and paper, under a very old apple tree that I was going to take down. The old tree really came alive with loads of lovely leaves, no fruit of course as it was too late for them to form. Later on I will start to prune by taking out the dead wood and the cross branches. Not to much this coming year as I do not want to stress the tree. It has never been pruned since we moved in at the end of 1996.

Well, I have to start somewhere. Very Happy

When we started living here I planted a few flowering shrubs but never dared to trim them. Very Happy

Last spring for the first time I started on them and already I can see an improvement.
I also found out how to shear down to the ground all sorts of flowers and plants to control their growth and even told my new neighbour to shear some flowers as though they were sheep.

yolos 1/9/2015, 1:04 pm

I have woods on my property and the neighbor has large oak trees. Every year I move to a new location in this area and just skim the top of the ground and get the fresh leaves that have just fallen. I figure taking the newly fallen leaves from an area every five years will not set the trees/ecosystem back.

**Kelejan** 1/9/2015, 2:00 pm

yolos.

I did only about one-third of my wooded part, mainly because I would probably fall off the steeper part and partly because my wood chips arrived before I risked my neck.

It gets steeper the farther back I go and I have never yet walked over all of my land.
So far, about two-thirds up and I had my remote phone with me which still worked.
It was harder coming down so I am glad I did not continue up.

All ten to 15 houses on my side of the road back onto this ridge, and none of us are really able to make use of it. We need the trees there to hold the rock backs.

**jimmy cee** 1/9/2015, 2:58 pm

Kelejan wrote:.
It was harder coming down so I am glad I did not continue up.

When ever your in a situation like that, back down as you came up.
You won't be top heavy then, also will maintain a lower center of gravity

**Kelejan** 1/9/2015, 3:27 pm

jimmy cee wrote:
Kelejan wrote:.
It was harder coming down so I am glad I did not continue up.
When ever your in a situation like that, back down as you came up.
You won't be top heavy then, also will maintain a lower center of gravity

Thank you jimmy. I must admit I would never label myself top-heavy. Embarassed

Marc Iverson 1/10/2015, 6:03 pm

The trees are landslide insurance around here, too. We're right up against a steep hill, maybe a dozen feet away from it in the back yard, a bit more or less depending where you're standing. It's mostly the front yard that loses its nutrition by having leaves raked away. The backyard is to steep to mess with for the most part.

Windmere 1/10/2015, 6:27 pm

I have woods at the back of my property. Mainly there are pine trees and then a few of something else I have never identified. With so many pines on our property, I have a steady supply of pine straw. I only skim the top. We've had friends come and get some straw for their yards.... we have such a huge supply (we've been here 9 years and some spots we've never touched). The "soil" underneath is pretty rich.

It's really amazing how the eco process works with pine straw.

**sanderson** 1/10/2015, 9:51 pm

I posted last night but erred in sending it. I went with DH to ride in his Razor dune buggy. Elevation 4,000 feet and above the Valley red hazard air pollution. The forest was so quiet with pines, cedars, manzanita, grasses and ferns. Local woods Razor_12

**jimmy cee** 1/10/2015, 10:35 pm

BEAUTIFUL

CapeCoddess 1/11/2015, 12:37 pm

jimmy cee wrote:I live close to nothing but woods, I think I would try to find who owned the land , then get permission to scrape some off. Usually people are fine with something like that.
I had an old friend years ago that allowed me to go out in his woody area to cut some spindly trees I could use for fencing...

I have often wanted to make fences and trellises out of branches, like putting a fence up around my compost pile. But I believe that when I stick the larger ones into the ground to use as posts they will take root, and I sure don't want that. Jimmy, do you have that issue?

CC

**jimmy cee** 1/11/2015, 1:19 pm

CapeCoddess wrote:
jimmy cee wrote:I have often wanted to make fences and trellises out of branches, like putting a fence up around my compost pile. But I believe that when I stick the larger ones into the ground to use as posts they will take root, and I sure don't want that. Jimmy, do you have that issue?

CC

CC,
I usually don't use a larger branch into the ground, although I would never hesitate to try it.
I use mostly treated 4 x 4s, 6 x 6s, or what ever I could get my hands on free.
If I must pay, I'll use 4 X 4s x8 ft long.
Back to your question, if you are able to get some larger fresh timber, I doubt very much if it would take hold.
Now smaller branches having leaves and buds thats another thing.
I placed (free) for the asking treated removed electrical post's, then used timber across.
I wish I would have used all treated because this year I need to redo it all, including my wife's flower garden.
This was before SFG
Local woods Img_4910

**jimmy cee** 1/11/2015, 1:23 pm

CapeCoddess wrote:
I have often wanted to make fences and trellises out of branches, like putting a fence up around my compost pile. But I believe that when I stick the larger ones into the ground to use as posts they will take root, and I sure don't want that. Jimmy, do you have that issue?

CC
CC,
I usually don't use a larger branch into the ground, although I would never hesitate to try it.
I use mostly treated 4 x 4s, 6 x 6s, or what ever I could get my hands on free.
If I must pay, I'll use 4 X 4s x8 ft long.
Back to your question, if you are able to get some larger fresh timber, I doubt very much if it would take hold.
Now smaller branches having leaves and buds thats another thing.
I placed (free) for the asking treated removed electrical post's, then used timber across.
I wish I would have used all treated because this year I need to redo it all, including my wife's flower garden.
Lowes carries 3inch round post's 8 foot long for $3-4 each..I like them
This was before SFG

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