Twigs and sticks

[noviceveggrower]

Hi,
My plot has a big tree in it and at the moment it is dropping a load of twigs and sticks. I think its a sycamore, no in fact it is thinking of the leaves.
Has anyone out there any ideas what I can do with them all. They vary in length from little diddy ones to fairly long ones.
Thanks

[Lamboluke]

How about collecting them and piling the up as a bug shelter in your garden to attract birds and other wildlife to you?

[Lumpy]

I use long twigs to support my dwarf sugar snaps. You could use the little diddy ones for any paths etc that get a bit water logged when it rains so walking is alot less squishy.

[arpoet]

If you are building raised beds put a layer of smaller twigs at the bottom. Longer ones can be used as pea supports.

[Kristen]

I find that twigs that drop are dead, and brittle, and break too easily if I use then as supports (so I use prunings from shrubs instead), if yours are not that brittle though they would make great Pea Sticks for supporting floppy plants.

A pile of twigs would be appreciated by wildlife though.

[Bacchus]

Hi,
My plot has a big tree in it and at the moment it is dropping a load of twigs and sticks. I think its a sycamore, no in fact it is thinking of the leaves.

Thanks

Unfortunately I have a massive sycamore at the bottom of the front lawn. I really like trees and won't cut them down unless I really have to (I live on a farm so there are hundreds) but I'm not fond of sycamores at all. They are not native and seem to mostly attract wasps and aphids...

[Tomatoe]

Bag the leaves and store them for a few years. Stockpile the twigs and branches for hedgehog/forg/toad habitats (use the strudy ones for plant supports as already mentioned).

Compost the seeds after squishing them

[Madasafish]

Unfortunately I have a massive sycamore at the bottom of the front lawn. I really like trees and won't cut them down unless I really have to (I live on a farm so there are hundreds) but I'm not fond of sycamores at all. They are not native and seem to mostly attract wasps and aphids...

So great for birds.. who love aphids.

And wasps - which kill insects for food..

[Bacchus]

So great for birds.. who love aphids.

And wasps - which kill insects for food..

I'd just as soon wasps wern't around at all as I have small children running around.

and not so great for the birds either. Sycamores do not attract the types of insects that native birds enjoy.

An extract from a Forestry service information leaflet copied below

"Sycamore is a species whose value causes
much debate. It is not a native tree and
supports a lower diversity of insects than
most native trees. It comes into leaf early, so
shading spring-flowering plants. Its leaf litter
rots slowly and does not provide such a good environment for the ground flora. For
these reasons, it should be discouraged"

[Kristen]

I think of Scyamore as a weed ... as a tree its a greedy thug and not much grows near it, and it has great ability, like effective weeds, to seed everywhere ...

I'd have no qualms cutting one down; I plant plenty of trees each year, one less Ssycamore, and one more newly planted tree, would be fine in my book.

[Valleyman]

Scyamore is good for one thing, and one thing only.

Cutting down and putting in my wood-burning stove.