Repurposed Yard Clipping Bush Branch Segment Framed Garden Beds

While doing landscape demolition, remodeling, and clean up jobs, it’s often advisable to confer with a client on which if any materials they’d like to salvage and reuse or give away. Otherwise, lots of both natural and human made treasures can just end up in a dumpster for a trip to the landfill, or put through a chipper/shredder to be mulched.

At this site we agreed it would be a great up-cycling usage of the reasonably sized lengths of a chainsaw cut bush branches as a perimeter wall for a system of garden beds. With a bit of estimation and some experimentation with placement of the materials, this concept of a curved series of oval shaped beds with foot paths between worked out.

I used the leaves that had been clipped off the bush to pack in and around the small gaps between micro logs. They wouldn’t last forever and would rot and compost out pretty quickly, but the goal would be for the soil and plants to mature together enough to hold the soil well in place once the initial leaf litter had decomposed.

Little projects like this are so much more fun and rewarding, not to mention cost saving, than simply ordering whatever prefabricated materials and supplies are available from a landscape supplier. There’s a time and place for everything, and I have much gratitude for the ability to rely on suppliers in times of need. But whenever it’s possible to re-use, re-purpose, and up-cycle onsite materials, it’s a plus for everyone and everything.