greg mosser wrote:interesting! i’d be just a little concerned about nitrogen sequestration from the branches for those little seedlings…i do think they’d have to be packed pretty dense if it’s really going to discourage rodents.
my active compost pile has been regularly getting spread by raccoons (and possibly a young black bear), so i recently added a ‘crown of thorns’ (after pruning dead lower branches off my friendly honey locust tree) and that has helped greatly.
Thank you for sharing your experience!
I am thinking the nitrogen sequestration could be a good thing depending on the species. Ones like oak would likely love it because they prefer to grow slowly in harsh conditions and don’t like a lot of competition. But peaches might like some nitrogen feeding.
Also it might be worth letting the canes die back before using them, in case they sprout and all we get is a bed of thorn…bushes.