Return to the Garden Accoutrements Forum
| Post a Follow-Up
Need suggestions for using old branches
| | |
Posted by TaraRose z6 MO (My Page) on Wed, Oct 29, 03 at 17:37
| The former owners of my house and the February ice storm last year have left me a great big pile of tree branches. Many of them are up to two inches across or thicker. I'd like to use some of this wood to edge a raised bed or possibly for compost bins, but I'm not sure where to begin. Has anyone else done something like this? Can anybody recommend a book or Web resource?
I was thinking the best thing would be to stack them with some kind of mortar or plaster or something to stick them together. Is there some kind of way to weave old, dried-out branches together? I know the wood probably won't last very long, but I don't mind. By the time it decays I'll probably have a better idea what I'm doing here!
Tara |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Need suggestions for using old branches
| | |
Wattle fence.
Use the dried pieces for uprights, and then weave freshly cut thin, pliable branches through them.
Do a search for 'wattle' to see what wattle is supposed to look like. |
RE: Need suggestions for using old branches
| | |
| you could also use a thicker craft wire to wire them together. for compost bins: put your 4 corner sticks in, dug into the ground for stability (vertical). then put the others inside your 4 in a log house formation (horizontal). this would create lots of air space. just wire them as you go to hold it. i think it would be a cool bin. you'd just need to cut all the pieces the same length roughly. you could also look up making twig furnitre. perhaps you could make a decorative piece, arbour or plant stand? |
RE: Need suggestions for using old branches
| | |
| I had this same predicament about 6 years ago, and it eventually turned into a business! Look at my website. I'm not trying to sell anything, just hoping it will give you some good ideas!!! |
Here is a link that might be useful: Twigs
RE: Need suggestions for using old branches
| | |
Arboars, arches, trellises, the possabllities are endless. I do know that you can soak the smaller diameter branches and vines in water, makeing them more supple and weavable.
Good luck, have fun!!
dirtdog1 |
RE: Need suggestions for using old branches
| | |
I just found this thread, and today I just placed a huge evergreen branch (that my DH cut down) against my front deck. I have been baking bird cookies all week and plan to make a garland from them, along with a whole pile of other treats. I have cherrios, berries, pretzels and my cookies.
I think they'll love it and use the branches from the pine as perches. I might slap a bit of peanut butter on the bark, even though it's in the cookies. Just trying to get into the Xmas spirit. Hope this helps. |
RE: Need suggestions for using old branches
| | |
| I have used branches as a curtain rod - looks very charming. Just yesterday I inserted some through tab top curtains in the family room with some arching ones on top of the rod. It looks really fabulous. Then I put some upright in a huge, tall vase. The sticks are about 7' and look great. Outdoors, I plan to build an arbor over a walkway next spring. I LOVE twigs! :-) |
RE: Need suggestions for using old branches
| | |
Years ago, my mother obtained from somewhere a decoration. I think it was from a charity dance of some sort. It was made with a 3' high piece of driftwood.
The base was a shallow dish, about 2 1/2 ' in diameter. I trhink the dish was a ceiling light fixture or a piece (disc)from an old plow. The base was filled with something like plaster of paris with the driftwood positioned in the center and different sized pebbles around. It looked like a large Bonsai.
The base and pebbles were sprayed with various colors (not garish, but really nice ).
The arrangement was usually out side with some plants nearby...but I think I remember it being used as a Christmas decoration once...with ornaments , tinsel, etc hung on it.
Of course, this wouldn't help with the large amount you had to cope with, TaraRose,but it may be a suggestion for a Christmas decoration for someone. I hope you found something interesting for your collection of wood. What did you finally end up using the wood as, TaraRose?
Lina |
RE: Need suggestions for using old branches
| | |
| You could make a rustic fence, I just completed one yesterday, You make the bones with metal fence post and wire then you wire the branches to it, you cover the metal fencepost, go across, on top and in middle with big branches then weave through wire. If you like I will take a pic tomorrow and post it. It is a nice background for a flower border |
RE: Need suggestions for using old branches
| | |
LukeBarrow Your website is excellent ! What great idea's and beautiful work in such a grand scale!
Tara Rose there is so much you can do both funcunial and decorative with your branches.
I live where we have lots of red alder and I have made fencing, I have a Foristner bit i attach to my drill to make tenons and this makes the putting them together task easy !
I also made a stair railing from a down alder tree using a draw knife to clean it up and make it smooth.
to attach branches to each other use galvanized screws and pre-drill your holes!
HAVE FUN ! |
RE: Need suggestions for using old branches
| | |
Jomama3,
I did some severe trimming today on 2 Vitex trees and a Bottlebrush. Now have lots of limbs to make something. You mentioned having a Foristner bit. Do you have an assortment of sizes or just one for your projects? I saw tenon cutters in the Lee Valley catalog, but they are pricey. The foristner bits are cheaper. |
RE: Need suggestions for using old branches
| | |
| I have seen those bits on EBay many times. |
RE: Need suggestions for using old branches
| | |
Hello Jo-Ann!
Could you post some photos of the work you mentioned? I'm working on a pergola with gates right now and would love to see your stuff.
Thanks!
JoAnn- In MO! |
RE: Need suggestions for using old branches
| | |
| I saw a nice treatment for a raised bed on tv. Saw 1 to 2 inch diameter branches across into pieces about a foot long. Then pound them vertically into the ground next to each other in a single row around the edge of the raised bed. The cut ends will make a nice line of 'circles' pointing towards the sky. Doesn't have to be even. It was very pretty and rustic looking. It will slowly decomposed into the soil. |
RE: Need suggestions for using old branches
| | |
| If the wood isn't rotting and full of bugs, you could make twig furniture. I made this chair from green wood from our ice storm. So far I've made 2 chairs and a loveseat. I have lots more building material since that storm, and I live practically in a woods! |
Here is a link that might be useful: first twig cuair
RE: Need suggestions for using old branches
| | |
| If they're relatively lightweight, hotglue them to the side of an outbuilding to make a faux espalier tree, or a rustic fence. For a bin, build a box log-cabin style, in other words lay two sticks on opposite sides of a square, then add two sticks on top of them on the other two opposite sides. The sticks should be long enough to overhang a couple of inches past where the sticks cross, making an 'X' at each corner. When you get the stack to the height you want, drive other sticks into the ground in the outside vee of the X's of the overhang, outside of the box. When you put stuff inside the box, the sticks will be pushed outward and the stakes will brace them so the box doesn't come apart. You can use the same procedure for planters, bins, and flower boxes and beds. Ray |
RE: Need suggestions for using old branches
| | |
| I had to have a really big pine tree cut down and saved everything, stump, branches and shredded mulch. I made an arbor, a fence, lined a garden path to separate colored mulches and am working on a chair and bench. Don't have an updated photo of pathes but you can see the fence in farmhouse garden and arbor in roses. |
Here is a link that might be useful: gardens
RE: Need suggestions for using old branches
| | |
| I also used 3/4 inch branches to hang a halfcircle of american flag bunting under my two front windows. I had been pondering how to attach the bunting. I was considering curtain rods. Got tired of thinking so I grabbed two branches, and ran twine through the grommets on the bunting to tie to the branches. Hung a branch horizontally under each window. Looks ten times better than some factory curtain rod. Kind of early American rustic. A natural branch is a great way to hang any yard flag or sign. Two vertical branches with a horizontal one in between to hang a sign on. Or a teepee of branches tied at the top, to hang a pot of flowers by the porch. To think I was going to pay for a rod |
RE: Need suggestions for using old branches
| | |
| Have any of you used fig tree branches and twigs for furniture or anything else? I've got alot of them and am wondering if they hold up for very long...Emtnest |
RE: Need suggestions for using old branches
| | |
| I received some big white birch trunks and branches when a friend's tree died. Then I saw a family down the street had trimmed the same kind of trees,cutting down 1. the lady down the street said a friend made a christmas chandalier with some branches. A main one with a hook on top and used 2 branches to make cross branches on bottom (screwed on) and then she put candle holders on the end. I think she bought some at a store like Michaels. but you could use copper pipes and drill in a spot for them...I did a candlier once and used the flanges? that went around a faucet where they go into a wall...picked them up at a hardward store. Less expensive. I have cut a lot of them and tied to the grandkids big fort so they could call it a tree house for a while. I have cut some to use as curtain rods. I am gona use some of them to make candle bases or holders. I have some cut to use as bases for birdhouses I will make when they replace the fence. I kept all the small pieces to put on the outside of some of the birdhouse like logs and others to make some doll furniture with. Now I have not done them yet, just in my plans to do when I cut them up last week. I know all those ideas and plenty of time...lack of energy some days for this great grandma. |
|
|
|
|
