Thread: Uses for Shavings

I think you've about covered all of my ideas, Seb. I'll be interested to watch the forum work this one over.

Wayne

Kitty Litter, put it in plastic bags (used) on the nature strip, put up a sign: "Free Kitty Litter" and it will go.
Cheers, Steve

Ironic that woodies protest about timber coys ripping trees down and turning them into pulp - yet do the same thing themselves (albeit on a smaller scale) - but at least the commercial pulp is used for something.

Our little city council have a mobile shredder (sure a lot of other councils would have, too) and any street trees that come down, or are thinned down under the 'lectric wires, are shredded and taken to an area in the dump (Waste Recycling Facility) and "composted", then recycled.
Personally, my timber by-product is loaded onto the trailer and deposited in this area of the dump.
I wouldn't dream of dumping my household garbage and kitchen scraps over the back fence, (or over someone else's back fence) and the same goes for my sawdust, shavings and shed rubbish.
Other thing is, shavings and sawdust spread over soil actually depletes the soil of nitrogen (nitrogen draw) which is then not available to the existing plants and vegetation - so anyone who "dumps" shavings onto vegetation areas is actually damaging our fragile environment...
Jedo

See if any of your neighbours, partic the vegie gardeners, want it for mulch.

Small quantities can go into a compost bin along with vegie scraps. Authorities seem to differ on the advisability of this but it works for me.

I scatter most of mine on the lawn and it rots down pretty quickly. If it depletes the soil and cuts down grass growth no complaints here ;-}

Yeh Yeh wood shavings ruin the soil......That is a bit of a generalisation.

It depends on what wood shavings and what you do to & with them.

Shavings can cause nitrogen draw down.... but so can any dry vegative mulch.... thats why you furtilise when you mulch.
AND this nitrogen draw down only occurs IF the matter gets a chance to break down........ which is the single biggest problem.

If you just pile up saw dust and wood shavings dry it will just sit there and look at you for years. It is sterile, dry, insulated and anerobic.

If you expect it to rot down you need to help it along.
You can disapear large quantities into regularly dug garden beds like vegitable gardens and the like as long as you dig it in in reasonable quantities and you apply some furtiliser ( preferably manure) at the same time.

A friend of min with a stair case joinery has benn using shaving in his vegy gardens for years and grows great vegies.

dig it in with lots of manure and in 4 to 6 weeks you will have a hard time finding it... as long as the bed is moist.
Diuspersed, with good soil contact and added manure and a bit of moisture, gives the fastest and most usefull result.

A great partner for wood shavings is chook manure, (the fresher the better, if getting you shavings to decompose is your aim) fresh cook manure is "excessivly hot" and rich in nitrogen but contains no organic matter available for further decomposition, wood shavings contains little or no nitrogen.
If shaving break down is your objective arround 50 /50 shavings and chook manure is reasonable, more or less will still be effective.

mushroom compost is also excessivly hot and wood shavings can be used as an extender and buffer for that too.

Mixing other organic matter like grass clippings, leaves and so forth in with the mix is always helpfull.
Remember one secret of good compost is variety, the more different things in you heap the better it will work.
It probaly helps too if you turn the heap once in a while.

Another problem with wood shavings is acidity, for various reasons there can be acididity associated with wood shaving decomposition. Products of decomposition and tannins in the wood are two factors. A very generous application of dolimite at the same time as laying down the shavings can help here.

shavings with lots of aromatic "stuff" in them like camphor or some of the pines need to be spread thinner than other stuff, so the soil, air, water and manure can deal with the aromatics, mixing with less whiffy shavings is probaly a good idea.
Same with woods with a lot of tannin in them.

Yes you can dispose of large amounts of sawdust, wood shavings in your garden, quite usefully, but you have to help it along.
If you just dump it there it will sit there looking at you for ages AND make a problem of its self to boot.

I have a couple of " research projects" underway involving large amounts of sawdust / wood shavings at the moment. Once they progress a bit further I'll post some pictures.

cheers

Useful info Soundman.

Yeah, sawdust is harder to mulch than shavings; it tends to cake.

Originally Posted by rsser

Useful info Soundman.

Yeah, sawdust is harder to mulch than shavings; it tends to cake.

Yep Yep Yep. and once it is caked up you won't even get water into it.

try mixing it 50 /50 with dirt......even that is better.

cheers

Just checked on research project #1
the compost heap
its a circle of besser bricks about 6' round and about 8 bessers high (5' ish).
I contains mostly sawdust off Exador's mill, with a good helping of cook manure, mushroom compost and seived poor dirt off the ground.
I added some dolamite from the top and watered it about once a month with water from our sulliage tank.
It was laid by shoveling in layers. Its been down about 3 months and hasn't been turned.
I just took a trowel to the top to have a look, once you get past the crusty top inch, its quite moist and getting on quite nicely, lots of little worms and has a sort of potting mix texture to it.
it was filled to the top and has subsided about the height of 1 besser.

I'll probaly start pile #2 in about a month and pull this one down & use the contents.

project #2
the banana patch is much fresher nad has some of Exador's mill dropping and some kwila & durian dust & shavings in it, with chook manure, mushroom compost and lots of dolamite still looks like sawdist but the potatoes & put in ther about a month ago are up and looking lush, the bananas are still looking shabby from the cold. But I recon they'll come away in a month or so.

cheers

The ag class instructor in our high school gets a lot of mine to use as bedding for the animals that are penned outside of town... sheep, pigs, some other show animals.
The rest I put around my trees and grape vines for mulch to hold moisture. Never had a problem yet.
Our radio station broadcasts some short public service announcements... one of 'em being, "free mulch, call number_______."

I use mine for mulch, give some to neighbours and mix some with other vegie matter in the compost heap.

As a mulch, it depletes only the top couple of mm, and stops weeds pretty well.
Might give it a try as kitty litter. Cat's p!ss has plenty of nitrogen in it, so perhaps it could then be dug in as a fertilizer?

Cat stuff is bad for vegie growin', cause somethin' in it's harmful to humans, and doesn't go away in the compostin'.... what I've heard, anyway. Any ideas on this??

I take some of mine to work and chuck it in the skip with all the other wood waste .
I put a small amount out with the rubbish , 'cos the worms at the dump gotta eat too.
And when I get a bit better organised , I'll take it out to my brother's place .
He raises, trains , and races trotters and pacers , so my relatively small amount would hardly carpet one stable yard .
Mixed with horse manure the public love it
If I had my own place I would put Soundman's ideas into action .
Besser bricks are concrete blocks , right

cheers ,
Jock

Give it to the better half tell her its that large diamond she always wanted.....but she has to wait a few hundred years for decomposition into coal then compression and heat to form it

Just run like hell and duck for cover

I have never smoked in my life but perhaps
you could try the shavings and let me know what the effects are.

Up to date I have given all my shavings to the bloke next door who
breeds those whopping big white rabbits. Claims it keeps them
warm in the Winter.

Allan.

_______________________________________________

I am not at all worried about dying
... but just hope I am not there at the time.