Can You Sell Wood From a Fallen Tree in your own Garden?

Mehitabel

Hi.

My mother has a very large and very old mulberry tree in her garden.  Last week, about half of it fell clean off. Mercifully no-one was under it (it happened at night) and no damage was done. But it's been estimated there's at least a couple of tons of wood in the broken section.

Does anyone know if we are allowed to sell the wood? If so, tips for going about it would be welcome!

Thanks.

Brie

It's your mom's tree so she can do what she wants with the wood.  Sell it, burn it, give it away or take it to the tip.

I don't know what the quality of mulberry is but it's not something standard you can pick up at B&Q so I'd suggest talking to someone who knows wood - a top quality carpenter or an artist who sculpts with wood or makes furniture. 

I know when years ago my dad had to cut down some old apple trees there was a chap who asked for the wood as he made musical instruments and the trees would give him enough to make a complete matching set. (long ago and far away so no contact details)

For artists I would suggest searching something like this....maybe your mom could get a nice bit of art back in exchange for the artist getting all the wood??

Artists · Dorset Visual Arts

Keep_pedalling

Nothing preventing its sale. If you know of any local turners they might be interested as it is suitable for turning but not available commercially.

Brie

And now that you've piqued my curiousity I can see that mulberry makes lovely turned bowls....I'd love one of these!!!

Oval ,live edge Mulberry bowl. 19 cm x 16 cm W x 10 cm H. - Turned Wood From Peter Thomas and Trevor Ball (peterthomaslivingwood.co.uk)

Mehitabel

Brie said:

And now that you've piqued my curiousity I can see that mulberry makes lovely turned bowls....I'd love one of these!!!

Oval ,live edge Mulberry bowl. 19 cm x 16 cm W x 10 cm H. - Turned Wood From Peter Thomas and Trevor Ball (peterthomaslivingwood.co.uk)

Wow - so would I!

Brie

Mehitabel said:

Brie said:

And now that you've piqued my curiousity I can see that mulberry makes lovely turned bowls....I'd love one of these!!!

Oval ,live edge Mulberry bowl. 19 cm x 16 cm W x 10 cm H. - Turned Wood From Peter Thomas and Trevor Ball (peterthomaslivingwood.co.uk)

Wow - so would I!

Well that's your next birthday present sorted then!!!

twopenny

I would think someone who wants it for furniture or turning would be careful when cutting it up.

Not so sure about someone random who wants if for firewood.

Perhaps your mum would like a bowl or coasters made from it

Brie

quite agree with @twopenny
Likely to be able to get a quick tidy up with a gardener/tree surgeon but a furniture maker or similar would be able to look at it in place and visualise what they might use it for and cut it up accordingly.  Or maybe take it away as is though if it's a huge piece that would be very expensive for them and difficult to shift.  

If/when it does get cut up the saw dust will be great to put in the compost or directly on the flower beds.

Dustyevsky

Brie said:

If/when it does get cut up the saw dust will be great to put in the compost or directly on the flower beds.

Your other advice has been spot-on, but not this bit.

Freshly cut sawdust is chemically active, so it will rob the soil or compost of nutrients, specifically nitrogen. Always  compost it separately for at least two years before adding it to your borders or other compost.

Farway

Keep_pedalling said:

Nothing preventing its sale. If you know of any local turners they might be interested as it is suitable for turning but not available commercially.

A colleague's hobby was wood turning, no personal knowledge but from conversations it seems quite clubby hobby, all going to meetings & shows

He had loads of wood, stored and drying for years before using

I've had a search and there is an association, where there is more info, and more importantly list of clubs, so maybe worth contacting?.

https://www.awgb.co.uk/

Brie

Dustyevsky said:

Brie said:

If/when it does get cut up the saw dust will be great to put in the compost or directly on the flower beds.

Your other advice has been spot-on, but not this bit.

Freshly cut sawdust is chemically active, so it will rob the soil or compost of nutrients, specifically nitrogen. Always  compost it separately for at least two years before adding it to your borders or other compost.

You're probably right.  I'm just going by what my mom used to do.  She had the absolutely worst solid clay soil, no fibrous matter in it at all.  So every year for about 30 years in a row she would go to a local timber yard where fresh wood (so not chemically treated at all like some lumber you might buy) was sawn into planks etc.  They'd happily let her take away as many bin bags full as she could get in her truck for free.  This would get rotatilled into the vegetable patch in the spring and more used to mulch.  In the autumn everything left in the garden would get rotatilled in again.  Took a good 15 years to start showing much improvement to the soil.  And the garden was always massively productive throughout.