How can I use rotted wood?

10 years ago

Hello everyone: Several years ago we had a large maple tree taken down and DH decided we should keep most of the wood because we have a fireplace. Of course we could not use up even a quarter of the wood so it has just been sitting there and annoying me all these years because this is where I was supposed to grow my tomatoes. I realized today that many of the logs (and some of them are very large) have rotted to the extent that they crumble in my hands when I try to move them. There is lots of this crumbled stuff, some of it is chunky like wood chips, but some is very fine, looks like animals clawed it out over the winter for their homes. I was cleaning up today and decided not to throw this stuff out because perhaps this is nature's manure. So this is the question: Is this any use in my continuing efforts to improve my soil? If so, how can I use it? I have an area of clay soil which I have been amending for several years, and it would be great if I could use it there. Thank you.

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Comments (4)

lazy_gardens
10 years ago
Crumble it up and use it like you would compost or mulch.

Or look up "hugelkulkture" ... it works best with large rotting logs.
Kimmsr
10 years ago
That former tree could be a very good soil amendment, that is what Ma Natures does with trees that fall in the forest. You can use it for mulch, you could mix it into the soil if some source of Nitrogen is added as well to balance the carbon that wood provides, but it is not compost. Compost is something much different then partially digested wood.
pnbrown
10 years ago
And the "some source of nitrogen" is called urine.
northerner_on
Original Author
10 years ago
Thanks for your responses. I think my best bet would be to use it as a soil amenment for my new beds. I need to find a source of nitrogen other than urine though. I don't put down mulch because of my slug problem, caused by having so much wood on the property in the first place. I have already gone the hugelkultur route with several of the logs and I don't have space for anymore of it. So I'll just bag it up and save it for later. After all the frustration I'm glad I'll get some use out of that wood.