A Possibilty

from www.richsoil.com

I've been pondering the large piles of branches, still squatting in my yard after last May's wet and wild late snowstorm.  I could load them up and haul them to the village dump, where eventually they'll be set on fire...that is, if the village fathers will deign to unlock the gates and let me in to dump them.  Since they are pine, they don't make good firewood for my stove--too much sticky soot inside the chimney could result in a terrible fire accident.

So, what to do...what to do.

I've been reading a little about the idea of making hugelkulture beds, basically a raised bed formed as a mound with woody "stuff" as the base layer, then mulched heavily and planted with edible goodies.  The benefits of this kind of planting is that it doesn't require as much water as a regular garden bed--excellent in the changing, drier summer weather we get up here--and you can form it like a natural wind break of sorts if you plant it with shrubby things and perhaps add a tree adjacent to it.

I'm not sure how the dogs would feel about it, but I rather like the idea of having a bed or two in the backyard.  It would be a great way to dispose of the fallen tree branches in a useful way, and I'd get more gardening space.  I think the dogs might enjoy the fun of practicing hurdles as they do their laps.