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

theoretica

As others have said - woodturners might like it - either to buy or maybe in exchange for returning a couple of bowls?  But it isn't the best time of year for harvesting wood for turning, not that you have any option.

One thing to know is that it is usually better to leave wood for harvesting in long pieces, not cut into rounds.  Wood cracks from the ends so you want as much middle and as little end as you can manage.

Dustyevsky

Brie said:

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.  

Put it another way; I always know where I cut up last winter's logs. That area of grass needs cutting only half as much, and the colour trending towards yellow is another give-away. However, grass is shallow-rooted, so sawdust is bound to affect it more than it would a tree. The same effect might happen with many vegetable plants, some soft fruit like raspberries, and annuals, which have relatively shallow root systems.

Larger, well established plants probably wouldn't be impacted much or at all, nor would it matter in many siuations if bigger wood chips were used as a surface mulch, but now the advice is getting complicated!  It's easier to say 'compost it.'

One thing most advisors seem to agree on is not to rotovate-in, but let fresh mulch decompose on the surface. In time, worms and other creatures will incorporate it for you and the soil will still benefit. I can understand on clay soil why you might want to speed the process along, though! Whatever happens, whether nitrogen is temporarily less available or not, the overall effect of adding organic material will be positive.

Mehitabel

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/

Wow, thanks! I'll have a look..............

Rosa_Damascena

Farway said:

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/

How the other half live!

No comment about the branches except that the amount of wood suggest a glut of mulberries. Excessive consumption of which is likely to lead to an epic gut-ache.

Brie

Rosa_Damascena said:

No comment about the branches except that the amount of wood suggest a glut of mulberries. Excessive consumption of which is likely to lead to an epic gut-ache.

But also the possibility of the best jam in the world.

FreeBear

theoretica said: One thing to know is that it is usually better to leave wood for harvesting in long pieces, not cut into rounds.  Wood cracks from the ends so you want as much middle and as little end as you can manage.

Put some wax on the cut ends (or PVA at a push) to slow down the drying process. Stack off the ground somewhere cool and dry.

if you are going to use the logs as fuel, cut, split, and stack without the use of wax or PVA - You want them to dry out as fast as possible, and cracks & splits don't matter.

ratcatcher666

Buy a Log burner wait 12 months for it to dry and enjoy the free heat and the savings on heating bills. I purchased one 45 years ago and virtually have free heat. I do use gas but only a very small amount. Once you have one everybody gives you timber, old trees etc, it saves them a journey to the tip. I have only purchased 2 loads of wood in 45 years.