Outdoor benches, A Wood Garden, insects, and a man’s fight against monoculture
The Vision - Creating “the Chevron” Log/Soil Planter - Fall 2019
Look at that lawn - In a terrible word its MONOCULTURE. Yuck! Boring! Where’s the biodiversity? Lets build something! How about a 4’ tall 4’ wide monstrosity of a planter that’s about 25 feet long and has shade/sun for a range of ferns/trees and other flora and fauna. Something that reminds people of a log cabin….or battlements of a medieval castle.
Initial Construction 2019
He started to kill the lawn (down with monoculture!), and collected seedlings, acorns from the street, unwanted discount trees, truckloads of dirt and volunteer saplings…and started planting EVERYTHING. He scavenged tree limbs, logs, twigs and bark.
April 2021
Things are happening! Young trees, discount ferns. Go nature go! Note the second planter in the back left corner of this photo. This is right under Heff’s powerline. A perfect place for a future discounted Oak Tree.
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April 2022 - Taking Root
Two years after breaking grass (ground?) the log soil planter is healthy and immature. The chevron has been in the ground for about 2 years, but things aren’t much taller than 4 feet.
May 2023
Things are really coming together. The side yard now really has some privacy from the street. The ferns are very happy. So are the trees. Gaze upon their brilliance. Do you see the bright white new needles of the blue spruce?
April 2024 -
Happy trees, happy ferns. Just waiting for summer to take off. And yes….that is a home depot bucket on the roof. Way to spot that. But did you see the maiden hair fern? Spoiler alert: it died, sorry mom.
Close up. Summer 2024
Heff broke up the boredom (and terrible monoculture!) with a little 3 Dimensional geotechnical construction. Here’s a 4 foot tall planter constructed of log/soil and truss spikes. It was built with fresh cottonwood logs that have since sprouted(see the trees growing off the structure?).
Meanwhile…Put a Burl (not bird) on it!
9/7/2020 - On the other side of Heff’s yard another transformation was happening. This 6 foot tall, 6 foot wide Big Leaf Maple Burl weighs at least a thousand pounds, and took the help of the best neighbor and his mini-excavator to stand it up. Its now surrounded by young BLM trees, a diverse group of other hardwoods, and of course a firepit. Did anyone catch the Portlandia reference? (“Put a bird on it!”).
Kill lawns, plant trees
Renton, WA Summer 2020
Men at work, no shirts allowed.
May 2021 - The Burl
Young Big Leaf Maple next to the old burl, and discount plants.
May 4, 2023 it was a micro forest (1 of 2)
Cedar Benches, old alder and pine rounds for legs. Fire pit area complete! Look at how sparse the canopy is. See the powerlines in the back? This is early spring. Soon they will be invisible. Bring on the foliage!
May 28, 2023 (2 of 2)
24 days later, same spot, Renton, WA wood garden.
Pictured here, alive and well- a diversity of tree species planted by Heff including oak, sycamore, walnut, golden corkscrew willow, mountain ash. But there’s also decomposing wood too! This is how you fight monoculture and invite biodiversity.
What do you do with Cedar Slabs?
Put them everywhere! They make great outdoor or indoor benches/tables
More Cedar Slabs
Have an old deck railing? Need more counterspace? Just put some wood on it.
September 2024 - This would have made an OK tinder pic if 1) I weren’t married and 2) I held the fish out to exaggerate the bountiful nature of the catch.
Multi-purpose deck bench/nap spot.
Summer 2024: Renton, WA: A benefit of fighting monoculture - The nature channel will come to your wood garden. Pictured: Two bees mating. See the video below!
Banded Alder borer beetle on an alder log in the wood garden. See the Video below. These critters are beautiful.
https://entomology.oregonstate.edu/sites/agscid7/files/entomology/Banded_Alder%20Borer_13.pdf
A 90 second tour through Heff’s wood garden in Renton, WA. Summer 2024.
Renton, WA Wood Garden, July 18, 2024. Two bees mating. Healthy Bees, healthy ecosystem. Fight monoculture. Kill your lawn, plant trees, plant flowers, plant viburnum.