Turning Dying Oak Trees Into Vole-Proof Garden Beds

The weather is cool, sunny, and breezy.  It's a great day to work in the yard.  So....

Cutting a Felled Tree Into Two-Foot Lengths

We have three red oak trees that are dying.  While they still have an abundance of lower leaves, their tops are dead, ragged and unsightly.   Today, my husband did a masterful job of felling two of the trees - placing them smack dab down the middle of our driveway - not on our neighbor's lovely white fence.  Insert sigh of relief here.  The boys are hauling the side branches to the woods where we will - in time - run them through the chipper and use them to mulch our garden paths.

Dragging Side Branches to the Woods

Enter experiment number ??

Branch Pile Waitingto be Shredded

Well really.  Who knows how many experiments we have going?  I have simply stopped counting.  Suffice it to say, I've come up with yet another one.  Vole-proof, raised garden beds. 



Here's the plan:

• Cut the trees into two-foot lengths and then split them.
• Use a post-hole digger, pick axe, etc. to bury the split logs on end, one foot deep, side-by-side, all around each one of our newly dug garden beds.
• Leave one foot of log exposed above ground level to contain the amended soil.

Stacked Logs Waiting to be Split

I'm hoping this will keep the voles from digging into the beds and give me the raised beds I love without the cash outlay required to build them from milled lumber or stone.

Of course, I will post more pictures as the project progresses.

P.S.  It looks like the neighbor across the street has a few dead trees that need removing...hmmm?

St. Serenus, Pray for Us.