by AJB Temple » 16 Jan 2022, 16:47
Yes. We have experimented quite extensively with this. We used a lot of tree trimmings of various species, including leylandii, cherry, willow, chestnut and apple, plus some large logs of unknown species. We made a large raised bank in one very dry area beneath some trees but in full sun for half the day, and covered it in clay and topsoil, and then over planted with plants suited to a dry environment.
We also planted a hedge using a similar system. This was an S shaped hedge about 40 metres long. Yew (Taxus B) in a trench cut in the lawn. This gets badly waterlogged in winter, which Taxus does not like. This had the trench cut to about a foot deep, and gravel put in the bottom. (You don't need a trench but I did to above the clay pan effect for young yew trees). Then logs, then the cut turf laid over the top upside down, then a mix of topsoil and compost. Then the Taxus was re-planted on the top with good compost and the microbe stuff my wife gets.
The system works extremely well, but I should have made the hedge mound twice as deep. I made it about a foot and a half above ground level and within a year it had reduced in depth 50%. I will be remedying it this year by building a new adjacent bank twice the original depth and width and planting more small home propagated Taxus Baccata into that.
My advice is build quite a bit bigger and wider than you think you will eventually want, as it rots really fast. Not suitable for tender root systems in the first two years as in some circumstances it can be heat generative.
Don't like: wood, engines, electrickery, decorating, tiling, laying stone, plumbing, gardening or any kind of DIY. Not wild about spiders either.