I turned some bowls this weekend and ended up with a large trash can
full of shavings.

Can they be used as mulch for gardening? Are there any other
recommendations for the use of the shavings.

I have mainly been turning Walnut, Cherry, Maple and Ash, if that
helps.

thanks,
Steve

I've been wondering if I can turn them back into logs. I've got some
old oil finishes to use as binder, some 4" stovepipe to use as a mold,
and a roll of 4' wide paper to use as a wrapper. Wonder if anyone has
tried this before.

Otherwise, mine get dumped off the edge of the lawn, where the rocks
were piled after the house was built. They fill in the gaps and help
cover the rocky edges and such. Grass clippings go there too.

If there is walnut mixed don't try to use it in the garden.

Shavings should be aged/composted first before use in a garden. If I
have room I put shavings into the compost bin but I usually run out of room.

I also have a neighbor that has some small pets that live in cages. He
will come over and fill a box when I've turned cottonwood or aspen. It
saves him a bunch of money on buying commercially sold shavings used for
lining cages.

massmans wrote:
I turned some bowls this weekend and ended up with a large trash can
full of shavings.

Can they be used as mulch for gardening? Are there any other
recommendations for the use of the shavings.

I have mainly been turning Walnut, Cherry, Maple and Ash, if that
helps.

thanks,
Steve

Hi Steve

Yes you can use them for a mulch, I have used them for years, keeps the
weeds down and conserves the soil moisture and especially keeps the
soils top layer's temperature from baking the hair roots when the
summer sun shines on it.

You could also mix some in with your other composting material and use
it that way.

I have also a few friends that come to pick some up for mulch and one
that uses it also in his poultry run.

I would not dig it in, in it's raw form, it will compete with the plant
roots for nitrogen to break down, and adding extra might give you other
problems, like to much leaf and no flowers, or spindly growth, just let
it break down above ground naturally.

Have fun and take care
Leo Van Der Loo

massmans wrote:
I turned some bowls this weekend and ended up with a large trash can
full of shavings.

Can they be used as mulch for gardening? Are there any other
recommendations for the use of the shavings.

I have mainly been turning Walnut, Cherry, Maple and Ash, if that
helps.

thanks,
Steve

On 7 Aug 2006 10:47:03 -0700, "massmans" wrote:

I turned some bowls this weekend and ended up with a large trash can
full of shavings.

Can they be used as mulch for gardening? Are there any other
recommendations for the use of the shavings.

I have mainly been turning Walnut, Cherry, Maple and Ash, if that
helps.

thanks,
Steve


Walnut is a bit iffy, but you can pile the shavings in a mound, allow
it to sit for 6-10 months, then use it as mulch. It will help to turn
the pile once or twice. If you use it immediately it will draw
nitrogen from the ground and may "starve" the plants. Blueberry
bushes are particularly fond of old sawdust.

massmans wrote:
I turned some bowls this weekend and ended up with a large trash can
full of shavings.

Can they be used as mulch for gardening? Are there any other
recommendations for the use of the shavings.

I have neighbors who are SERIOUS gardeners. They take all of the shavings that I can give them, using them for path cover in their terraced garden. They told me that the green wood shavings were too "raw" to use as mulch but are great stuff for keeping weeds out of walkways

Kip Powers
Rogers, AR

If you can, designate two areas for your shavings etc and dump all in the
first, for the first year, and all in the second the second year. Use the
first years's stuff in the second year if you are still with me, and like
that. By the time you are ready to use it , the nastys should be (gone?)

Tom

"massmans" wrote in message
oups.com...
I turned some bowls this weekend and ended up with a large trash can
full of shavings.

Can they be used as mulch for gardening? Are there any other
recommendations for the use of the shavings.

I have mainly been turning Walnut, Cherry, Maple and Ash, if that
helps.

thanks,
Steve

You can also use them in smokers and n your BBQ for adding that extra flavor
to your food. I am not sure about the Walnut, but have seen Walnut shavings
for sale at BBQ shops.


"massmans" wrote in message
oups.com...
I turned some bowls this weekend and ended up with a large trash can
full of shavings.

Can they be used as mulch for gardening? Are there any other
recommendations for the use of the shavings.

I have mainly been turning Walnut, Cherry, Maple and Ash, if that
helps.

thanks,
Steve

Yes

As I said before there is no problem with using the shavings as a
mulch.
The wood will be broken down by bugs and microbes, and they need
nitrogen and they take that out of the air when above ground (air is
something like 80% nitrogen, I think I do remember) not out of the
ground.
It is when it is dug in that it is unable to get at the nitrogen in the
air and it is taken out of the soil by the "buggies" and given back
after they die, but while living and breaking down the wood they are
then competing with the plants.
Also the juglone, a toxic substance that inhibits the growth of many
broadleaf plants (including walnut seedlings) would leach out more
readily in the ground, so composting before adding to the garden is
advisable if there is a lot of walnut in the shavings.

Yes you can use them for a mulch, I have used them for years, keeps the
weeds down and conserves the soil moisture and especially keeps the
soils top layer's temperature from baking the hair roots when the
summer sun shines on it.

You could also mix some in with your other composting material and use
it that way.

I have also a few friends that come to pick some up for mulch and one
that uses it also in his poultry run.

I would not dig it in, in it's raw form, it will compete with the plant
roots for nitrogen to break down, and adding extra might give you other
problems, like to much leaf and no flowers, or spindly growth, just let
it break down above ground naturally.

Have fun and take care
Leo Van Der Loo

Thanks for all the advice. Like always this newsgroup is filled with
some very knowledgeable people.


wrote:
Yes

As I said before there is no problem with using the shavings as a
mulch.
The wood will be broken down by bugs and microbes, and they need
nitrogen and they take that out of the air when above ground (air is
something like 80% nitrogen, I think I do remember) not out of the
ground.
It is when it is dug in that it is unable to get at the nitrogen in the
air and it is taken out of the soil by the "buggies" and given back
after they die, but while living and breaking down the wood they are
then competing with the plants.
Also the juglone, a toxic substance that inhibits the growth of many
broadleaf plants (including walnut seedlings) would leach out more
readily in the ground, so composting before adding to the garden is
advisable if there is a lot of walnut in the shavings.

Yes you can use them for a mulch, I have used them for years, keeps the
weeds down and conserves the soil moisture and especially keeps the
soils top layer's temperature from baking the hair roots when the
summer sun shines on it.

You could also mix some in with your other composting material and use
it that way.

I have also a few friends that come to pick some up for mulch and one
that uses it also in his poultry run.

I would not dig it in, in it's raw form, it will compete with the plant
roots for nitrogen to break down, and adding extra might give you other
problems, like to much leaf and no flowers, or spindly growth, just let
it break down above ground naturally.

Have fun and take care
Leo Van Der Loo

Most of the advice you've gotten is good. I'd just tell you don't mix
it in your soil. I'd even be very reluctant to mix it in any compost.
Using it for mulch should work well. We have a sawmill in our
community that when I first moved into our house would let you go to
their sawdust/shavings pile and take as much as you wanted. I made the
mistake to trying to mix it with compost and soil to make more soil
(when our house was built all of the top soil was scaped off) ever
since the soil has been very acidic and has very little nitrogen. They
were spruce sawdust/shavings but I imagine the same will happen with
your shavings. Good luck.

On 9 Aug 2006 05:38:32 -0700, "massmans" wrote:

Thanks for all the advice. Like always this newsgroup is filled with
some very knowledgeable people.


wrote:
Yes

As I said before there is no problem with using the shavings as a
mulch.
The wood will be broken down by bugs and microbes, and they need
nitrogen and they take that out of the air when above ground (air is
something like 80% nitrogen, I think I do remember) not out of the
ground.
It is when it is dug in that it is unable to get at the nitrogen in the
air and it is taken out of the soil by the "buggies" and given back
after they die, but while living and breaking down the wood they are
then competing with the plants.
Also the juglone, a toxic substance that inhibits the growth of many
broadleaf plants (including walnut seedlings) would leach out more
readily in the ground, so composting before adding to the garden is
advisable if there is a lot of walnut in the shavings.

Yes you can use them for a mulch, I have used them for years, keeps the
weeds down and conserves the soil moisture and especially keeps the
soils top layer's temperature from baking the hair roots when the
summer sun shines on it.

You could also mix some in with your other composting material and use
it that way.

I have also a few friends that come to pick some up for mulch and one
that uses it also in his poultry run.

I would not dig it in, in it's raw form, it will compete with the plant
roots for nitrogen to break down, and adding extra might give you other
problems, like to much leaf and no flowers, or spindly growth, just let
it break down above ground naturally.

Have fun and take care
Leo Van Der Loo

In article .com,
"massmans" wrote:

I turned some bowls this weekend and ended up with a large trash can
full of shavings.

Can they be used as mulch for gardening? Are there any other
recommendations for the use of the shavings.

I have mainly been turning Walnut, Cherry, Maple and Ash, if that
helps.

thanks,
Steve

Make friends with a potter that does wood firing, all mine go that way

--
--------------------------------------------------------
Personal e-mail is the n7bsn but at amsat.org
This posting address is a spam-trap and seldom read
RV and Camping FAQ can be found at
http://www.ralphandellen.us/rv

On 11 Aug 2006 18:57:20 -0700, "
wrote:

Of course a bag or a few bags of dolomite lime would rectify the
acidity and sweeten the soil, as for the nitrogen that should be back
to where it was before you dug in the shavings, and high nitrogen
fertilizer could increase that, but if there is pine etc. growing
there, then your soil is possibly acidic from itself, in that case live
with it or increase the PH with limestone.

Have fun and take care
Leo Van Der Loo

We take a pretty simple approach... I dump the shavings and the grass clippings
from the mower bag in the back yard and the boss runs the roto-tiller over it
every couple of months...
The clippings seem to supplement what the shavings take out, from what we've
seen in the last couple of years..
Mac

https://home.comcast.net/~mac.davis
https://home.comcast.net/~mac.davis/wood_stuff.htm

massmans wrote:
I turned some bowls this weekend and ended up with a large trash can
full of shavings.

Can they be used as mulch for gardening? Are there any other
recommendations for the use of the shavings.

I have mainly been turning Walnut, Cherry, Maple and Ash, if that
helps.

thanks,
Steve

massmans wrote:
I turned some bowls this weekend and ended up with a large trash can
full of shavings.

Can they be used as mulch for gardening? Are there any other
recommendations for the use of the shavings.

I have mainly been turning Walnut, Cherry, Maple and Ash, if that
helps.

thanks,
Steve
I use the shavings to make what I call handy, dandy fire starters for
starting brickettes in the BBQ or fires in the fireplace. I melt old
candles or parafin (like the wax on top of home made jellies) and then
mix the shavings into it so all the liquid wax is absorbed. I then put
the mixture into individual paper serving cups (holds 1 or 2
Tablespoons) or paper egg cartons that I cut apart. I then wrap the
individual portiions in foil. The egg carton can be wrapped in foil
and I make them look like bells, fasten ribbon on tops and use them for
package tie ons at Christmas or Weddings with a card explaining what is
inside the bell package. These are great to take camping too. It
takes only one to start a BBQ or laid fire in the fireplace and usually
only one match to get the fire started. Good sellers at craft shows.
Barb

yes, shavings make great mulch so long as the wood isn't walnut or
eucalyptus or one of the others that poisons plants
wrote in message
oups.com...

massmans wrote:
I turned some bowls this weekend and ended up with a large trash can
full of shavings.

Can they be used as mulch for gardening? Are there any other
recommendations for the use of the shavings.

I have mainly been turning Walnut, Cherry, Maple and Ash, if that
helps.

thanks,
Steve




--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

On Mon, 07 Aug 2006 10:47:03 -0700, massmans wrote:

Can they be used as mulch for gardening? Are there any other
recommendations for the use of the shavings.

I'm jumping in kind of late but, as an organic gardener and turner,
I may be able to add somewhat to the discussion.

First:

On a two year cycle even PCB's and explosives can be composted. So don't
fret the juglone ... neither you nor your plants nor the neighborhood
atomic chemist will be able to find any traces of it after one year of
active composting and one year of resting.

Second:
The oft-referenced nitrogen starvation WILL occur 1) at the soil line if
used as a mulch or 2) throughout the soil if dug in. But so what? Just dig
it in at the END of the growing season (if you live where there IS an end
to the growing season as most of us in the northern hemisphere do). By
spring, everything is balanced back out again AND your soil will have
greatly improved tilth. win-win

I use mine, several inches deep, applied to my paths and ya know what? my
paths are both springy as good carpet AND sporting a lush top layer of
grass.

Third:
My wife and I are getting ready to use them for a dry-toilet in our
basement. There, the lack of nitrogen is irrelevant since the other
ingredients have it in abundance.

http://www.weblife.org/humanure/default.html

I turned some bowls this weekend and ended up with a large trash can
full of shavings.
Can they be used as mulch for gardening? Are there any other
recommendations for the use of the shavings.

I've seen quite a few mulch-ish postings but not many other ideas.
For something different...

If you have/use either a fireplace, wood burning stove, or even
campfire, you can use the shavings to make fire starters. You can find
many recipes on the Internet for making those, but here are a few...

1. Put paper muffin wraps into muffin tins (or similar holder) and
melted wax (perfect use for old leftover candles) and shavings. You
can add a wick, stick, wooden match (or even nothing) to start them.

2. Use a paper tube (paper towels or toilette paper) and add wax and
shavings and fill. Once cooled, cut into slices. You can leave them as
is or wrap them in paper (newspaper works with a twist to create a
wick), or just bag them like I do in a zip-lock bag.

The muffin tin version is nice to make holiday gifts with for those
friends and family members who also can use fire starters.

eNjOy!
`Casper