3 Reasons I Half-Buried Rotten Logs Around My Berry Bushes

Last year I transplanted some mature blueberries, which should not have been a problem. And then BAM! we had an unprecedented Heat Dome in late spring, followed by an exceptionally hot and dry summer. Some of my berries got significant heat damage/sunburn and required radical pruning. In order to help them recover and thrive this year, I'm pulling out all the stops and doing everything I can to support them.
Here are the 3 reasons I'm using old, punky rotten logs as key element in my strategy to help my blues, and how I know it will be of help (hint: I've done it before with blueberry relatives to great success!).
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[@jameskniskern2261]

I have logs laying around on my swales. They have rotted out nicely... And supported all kinds of bugs, worms, grubs, and plants. But... the woodpeckers also enjoyed the logs over the winter looking for said bugs. They left beautiful wood chips all around my trees when they finished shredding those rotten logs. Win win.

[@angusrankin4709]

Yes your video helps, it’s good to know how to feed plants naturally for our health thanks

[@mynewanimalfamily]

Really interesting! I fully watched 😀

[@KatBurnsKASHKA]

Thank you for your daily videos, they're honestly one of my favourite moments of the day :) I appreciate your dedication.

[@eulerizeit]

First thing I thought of when reading the title was logs buried next to raspberries would make it more difficult to shoot out runners.

[@julie-annepineau4022]

Loving these more how to videos. I will be starting a food forest his year and this is really giving me ideas on how to set it up.

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

Great video. Definitely do this mostly with perennial systems and not annual systems (concern would be some nitrogen tie up). Long term, these will give all that nitrogen back, but short term there may be some deficiencies in the few inches around the logs. I love the idea though, and I lay down logs everywhere myself. They also create little microclimates around them, and habitat for various small critters.

[@morelikekoolva]

What a great tip!

[@tgardenchicken1780]

Love this idea. Will be planting some berry bushes and have some rotting logs.

[@garrettpeters3438]

Thanks for this tip. I have some logs that will be a good fit for my blueberries. 🫐

[@silvering14]

Thank you for saying your location at the beginning of the video! KZbin recommended it even though the algorithm probably knows I live somewhere completely different. 😆 I have some struggling blueberries in clay and the one that's doing good was planted by a pretty fresh stump. Maybe if I add some rotten logs to the bed the others will also perk up!

[@gadgetsponge]

Love the shorter videos. I can catch them quicker on the fly. Keep up the great work and HI from up north in Seabeck.

[@Terri_Stauffer]

I picked up a huckleberry for free at ugly plant sale, figured it cost me nothing. I was surprised it made the really cold winter we had, it’s just starting to warm up here so waiting to see how it grows. I think I gave it a good location unintentionally as it’s right next to rotting wood. 🤗

[@permiebird937]

When I plant a new shrub or tree, I use half rotted logs as a way to hold the cardboard in place as I put mulch on it.

[@gardentours]

I'm using logs as well to keep the moisture in the ground. It's so helpful close to the hegerow.

[@holisticheritagehomestead]

Great video. I never thought of doing that. We love the hugelkultur method, so this makes sense. Thank you.

[@sangha1486]

Another benefit may be the promotion of fungal life in the soil, which I assume is good for perennials that live in forests or forest adjacent ecosystems

[@janetbrewster680]

I have been eyeing huckleberries in our neighbouring forests and coveting these plants. Most of them grow out of crumbling deciduous trees so I planned to adopt some of that too. I have not seen huckleberries for sale at any nurseries and I do feel that taking them from the forests is wrong. Perhaps someone in my community with a forested backyard might be willing to sell me 2-3. I am glad to hear you are having success with them. This inspires me .

[@hendyappleton5701]

Timely once again, Angela... I was planning to pick up my replacement blueberry bushes in about an hour, and I've got So Much fallen wood from the 2021 ice storm...

[@kitdubhran2968]

Me too. Still so much. At least it’s still useful for lots of things. Dried or rotten, wood has so many uses. As long as you can find a place to stack them. I made a rugged fence with mine. Spite-scaping. (Instead of landscaping). I was told that the branches needed to be removed. Since it looks like rubbish basically, when in piles. So I made a fence out of them. So, they’re still there. But prettier. 😂

[@welshhymnspontrhyd]

I’m just taking down rotten wood from a 19th century part of my building, so way before chemical treatments for wood - they have a fine line in woodworm to prove it! Planning to use it to make hugel mounds in the start of my new forest garden in my field , thinking it will help shape the walking “ flow “round my area, as well as providing that sponge like decomposition basis for my new plants. But I’m building a raised bed for my blueberries near the house, (as my 3 year old grandson is always up way before me and out picking/ eating all the berries he can find up on the allotment!) I reckon using a rectangle if these rotten sawn timber as the outside of the “mound” will work well in the garden too. Waste not, want not! 🙃

[@marksando3082]

I wish we'd had the foresight to do this with the 3 mature blueberries we planted last spring that got murdered by that heat wave but we later got a couple of young ovatum that we did plant with some rotted logs and they seem to be doing great so far.

[@CannabinatedFantasy]

the proteins in the biofilms in the logs can hold thousands times their weight in water

[@jwysass]

As a replacement for rotting logs, would a dense pocket of wood chips serve a similar purpose? Placed far enough away so they don’t steal nitrogen from the plant, like your logs are offset from the roots.

[@waykeeperfarmandnerdery]

Such great advice, I have some logs from the previous owners on our farm that we can repurpose!

[@onlyintime9914]

You could do voice acting to bring in some extra income. You have a thoughtful and distinguished voice. You pronounce a lot of unusual and more complex sounding words very naturally too. If you are interested, good luck!

[@TheRootedTherapist]

Hi! I’ve been loving your videos. And I have one question that I don’t see when I search & look through your past videos. What do you do w your dog waste? I have 2 dogs as well and I’d love to incorporate a dog waste septic system. I know it shouldn’t be used around food plants. I’m just not sure how to incorporate it, especially since a smart design could be to use my slightly sloped backyard to have chickens closer to the house and toward the high point in my food forest to allow their waste (fertilizer & nitrogen) to wash down with the rain into my food forest. But that works totally against me with dog waste so idk where to put it. Or if a vermicomposter dedicated to the dogs waste would be better. Or of this is simply one of those imperfect things in suburban permaculture and I need to keep throwing it out w the trash.

[@albertgauche9271]

Do you use mycorrhiza on your huckleberry and blueberry plants when you plant them? I bet the rotting wood is decomposed by some fungus too.

[@carolarmstrong4979]

Great idea. I have just planted 3 blue berries in my new food forest. I have some rotting pine logs I can use. Wondering if they will improve the acidity ?

[@hannahmccauley3928]

This is great I've been using the technique of rotten logs to support plants for a while. But in my head I question their effect on blueberries specifically. Will they over sweeten the soil for blueberries and the decomposition process force me to treat more heavily to maintain a suitable pH for that specific plant?

[@howdoyouknowthat]

For my blueberries I've been using the space where we cut down 40 year old arborvitae. They're a type of Western red cedar. Some were dead before, some alive. The rotting roots have been fantastic for my northern highbush blueberries. In other areas I've buried the logs partially or fully. I expect them to be more acidifying than deciduous tree wood. Also, I watched a fascinating presentation on blueberries from AEA here on KZbin, and learned that what's mandatory is a reducing environment. That usually goes with acidic, but not always. :-) Good luck!

[@onetwoninety-nineonehundre599]

Will this work with all blueberries varieties?

[@busker153]

I can help you out on one point. There is no way to work with evolutionary processes, as there are none.