I’m back with another #SixonSaturday to show off a weird thing I began collecting a year ago: fallen branches. For the details on this hashtag, visit The Propagator’s Six on Saturday – A Participant Guide.
Many of the old oaks in the neighborhood drop limbs that break apart on the streets and are hauled away by the landscape crews. What a waste this is to remove rotting branches that house insects that feed birds, or shelter earthworms and salamanders, not to mention, return nutrients to the soil. I’ve collected what I can and find places to tuck them into my yard.
It’s 30° F at noon today in the Mid-Atlantic U.S. I’ll start small and go to large.
This first is curved bark I hope will become a good toad hideaway.
Some are simply tucked behind plants
An aside story: Soon after hauling in this 3-4 inch diameter one, I was so excited to see a Downy woodpecker enter the yard. He gave my prize a look, but flew to a pinky-finger diameter branch in a shrub and proceeded to spend ten minutes picking along it. Go figure!
We only have a townhouse’s worth of yard to work with, and this last was by far my best placement. The frogs sit on this log, and also the dragonflies, which have also been caught by the frogs. Squirrels use it as a shortcut and songbirds perch before edging down for a drink.
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