A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2005 Uses For Old Dead Pine

Are there books or sites dealing specifically with various uses for old dead pine?

hi GregP,

I saw a program once on HGTV where a woman was weaving small baskets from her pine needles. Appearently she had a lot me patients and time than I have because I tried just brading a few togather the other day and they kept breaking, maybe I should have soaked them first.

Hey Greg

Are you talking about a standing dead tree?? If so, you may have a hazard of it falling in a storm. Is it close to your house?? Pine trees once they die, are very bad about coming down, when least expected, also, why did it die? Pine beetles?? If so expect some more pine in the immediate area to die as well. There are ways to get rid of the beetles, just contact a tree specialist.

As for uses, if you are creative, I have seen people create totem poles, nothing fancy, just whatever they could create.

Hi, thanks for the initial replies, sorry for my delay getting back here.

We have over twenty acres, much of it forest. There are dead trees all over the place.
The deciduous wood goes into the stove or gets chipped, mulched, composted.
Coniferous wood is a problem. It's too acidic for general compost although some plants must like the pH difference. The wood creates creosote build-up in stove pipes so it has limited use, and outdoor, as firewood.
So I'm wondering just what-all that type of wood can be used for, because I want to recycle it.
I've got more dead spruce in the bush than I need bird feeder posts and flag poles, although I plan to limb those and put them near the road to see if there are any takers.
But oh, that pine, pine everywhere big and small, standing and fallen. True, they make great lightning rods. But I don't want to.
I believe there is a use for everything, even old decayed pine; I need to believe that all that work sawing, limbing, dragging, piling, chipping, could lead to something practical. I can't believe that the only thing that can be done is to pile it or hide it someplace where it just rots.
Thanks for any leads or brainstorms.

what i have done with old dead pine...

used it to make raised beds... doesn't decay as fast as some others and it is all natural so you can grow food stuffs in it

used it to make a retaining wall for my drive way culverts

used it to edge the fence line to keep the dogs from digging out (one chunck on either side of the fence, and it doesn't seem to promote rusting)

bark and chipped limbs make great mulch for beds, driveways, and walkways (seems to keep the weeds down)

great bonfires if you are having an outdoor party (you are right, don't burn it in the stove/fireplace/wood heater, the creosote will kill your chimney)

made archways and railings along the paths and gardens...

go to webshots and do a user search for jiffimouse and click on my album for yard art. some of the things are there (not much though, i am behind in my picture taking!)

Oh, oh, oh! I have read of community groups of woodworkers who go and harvest dead trees for their woodworking projects. Granted, I think they mostly harvest hardwoods, but in this day of MONDO-expensive lumber, surely there must be someone with one of those small home milling machines who would LOVE the free wood. I think sometimes, they'll even build you a piece of furniture out of your wood.

I'll see if I can find the article I'm thinking of, or you might try a Google search. Or I might try a Google search later...

Hugs and kisses to you for not wanting to waste all that perfectly good wood!

Hello GregP,
I'm not sure that the pine would last a long time with this project, but it you had enough of them, over time they should be replaceable!!!

When taking a whole tree down, lay it on it's side, and cutting into the tree and making circles or medalians, and taking those and placing them flat and making a path with them...
Take either small pepples and lay them down first in path and nestle the wood circles into it.

And I find parts of the tree that have been cut in chuncks when they start to cut it up as firewood, and some of the wood chuncks have certain features in them, maybe a hole or crutch part of the limb and also fill that with some dirt if the hole can hold soil or compost...
If not, take the drill (or saw maybe I should say) part that would make a hole for a door knob on a door, drill into the top section and make your own hole to put soil/compost and again plant a little plant in it!!!! (*Side note, make sure bottom cut of log/chunck is flat so the planter will stand on it's end and not tip over*)

Hope some of this helps>???

Will you keep us posted if you do any projects with the pine...We love Updates

Weezie

check out adventures of WildWillys.are pictures of stuff he has done with trees.

http://www.thegardenhelper.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php/topic/10/12.html

wander around in there and lookabout.

I live in woods and they are foresting in parts of it(some larger than others)Its a ugly mess.They took some from woods at bottom of hill.i seen yesterday they drove over the dogwood.I see its berrys.guess i'll try to root some.I burn some of the leftover crap& dragged a few logs for edgeing the bed....one has a hole in limb and iplanted a marigold in it.its actually a branch...took for the hole,just so could shove a plant inside it.

Contact a logging company. If the wood is of any value to them they will pay your for it.

Another possibility would be, selling the cut up wood for firewood. You can't use pine indoors as it creates creosote, but it is great for camp fires. Surrounding the camp grounds in this area, there are all sorts of folks selling firewood, at some pretty high prices! They range from 4 to 10 dollars for about a large arm full.