What would you do with a huge pile of sticks?
In an ideal forest garden I probably wouldn't have a pile of sticks. But I started from an nonideal situation and have a lot of pruned sticks ranging from 1 mm to 25 cm diameter.
This post is now a wiki and I've added the ideas from replies to this list. Let's try to make it 101! Feel free to edit directly or reply below and someone else will add to the list.
Burn
1. Firewood.
2. Use the fruit woods for smoking meat.
3. Make charcoal.
4. Biochar.
5. Fuel for RMH or pizza oven
6. Gasified wood
7. Fuel a still to purify water
8. Campfires
9.
Tie bundles of twigs to dry for kindling
Put them on the ground
10. Leave them where they are and let them rot.
11. Cut them into small pieces and use them as mulch.
12. Use smaller branches mixed with leaves to create air space in a primarily leaf-based mulch.
13. Piled in a carefully planned location for 6 to 12 months until the wood dries enough to be snapped for kindling, leaving the smaller branches for surface mulch.
14. Twigs and branches onto muddy paths
15. Wind break for a chicken coop
16. Tie into bundles to reinforce banks (
fascine)
Put them in the water
17. Put in ponds to manage algae and improve habitat for fish
18. Make chinampas
19. Brush dams
Fencing and borders
20. Make a junkpole fence
21. Wattle fence or walls
22. Deer deterrent by sticking branches into the top of fencing to make the fencing uneven and not create too much shade for growies.
23. Garden gates
24. Use the 1 inch (2.5 cm) diameter straight sticks as stakes. (I'm using stakes to hold up my raised bed borders and terrace borders).
25. Garden bed edging
26. Snow fencing
27. wikiup fence, or wikiwallup
Bury them
28. Hugelkultur - especially bigger pieces
29. Soil amendments
30. Create air pockets in compost piles
31.
stick drains
32.
reinforce the sides of a hugel
Give them to animals
33. Fetch/chew toy for dog
34. Chicken food (limbs with leaves)
35. Give to goats and hogs to chew
36. Twigs and branches as chicken bedding
Use them to attract animals
37. Wildlife habitat
38. Stack as a brush pile to attract birds that will poop and fertilize the spot
39. Attracting rabbits ... to eat
40. Use as a bird-feeder - Stick in the ground and hang bird treats from the smaller branches
41. Bug hotel
Use for growing things
42. Propagate as cuttings or graftwood scions.
43. Cut a flat space and use as a garden label to mark recently planted vegetables, trees, etc.
44. Trellises,
45. Tomato cages
46. As support or shelter for young trees
47. Growing mushrooms
48. Place them underneath grow pots for air pruning roots
Play with them
49. Let the kids at it.
50. Pick-up-sticks game
51. Pooh sticks game
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LX5023PmMU
52. Make a toy raft
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ll7vSVBhYAE
53. Handmade wooden slingshot
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9oWGuKypuY
54. Stick bow and arrow
https://artsycraftsymom.com/stick-bow-and-arrow/
55. Tiny toy chairs
http://oneinchworld.com/blog/index.php/2011/08/twig-chair-tutorial/
56. Stick crown
https://www.mamamiss.com/blog/2014/10/09/julia-donaldson-stick-man-stick-crown/
57. Stick garland
https://www.funkyjunkinteriors.net/make-an-all-season-twig-pinecone-garland-for-free/
58. Stick mobile
https://happyhooligans.ca/pinecone-mobiles-for-kids-to-make/
59. Stick instruments
https://nurturestore.co.uk/how-to-make-a-percussion-stick-musical-instrument
https://homemadeheather.com/crafting-shaker-sticks/
60. Stick star
https://happyhooligans.ca/summer-twig-ornaments/
61. Stick and yarn God's eyes
https://nurturestore.co.uk/twig-weaving-autumn-craft
62. Stick Tic-Tac-Toe
https://www.firefliesandmudpies.com/nature-inspired-twig-tac-toe/
Build structures
63. Debris huts
64. Wattle and daub structures
65. Ramada
66. Build a firewood shelter
Crafts
67. Carve them into clothespins.
68. Weave the long spindly green ones into a wreath.
69. Carve Harry Potter style wands.
70. Whittling practice
71. Carving spoons
72. Make a mallet
73. Make baskets
74. Rustic wood furniture
75. Lattice work
76. Marshmallow roasting sticks
77. Collect for school/kids arts and crafts projects
78. Make a whisk -
http://fredkeandfriends.lu/christmas-tree-recycling-homemade-whisk/
79. Make a baseball bat -
https://www.michaelkusugak.com/the-stories/baseball-bats-for-christmas
80. Make curtain rods/rod holders
81. Bathroom towel racks
82. Hook/peg for my bathrobe
83. Hooks/pegs for a coat rack
84. Pegs for a hat rack
85. Door handle
86. Rustic door hardware including a bolt
87. Chop sticks
88. Knitting needles
89. Crochet hooks
90. Datun/miswak/toothbrush
91. Tent pegs and other pegs
92. Cage for pet cockroach
93. Lizard and snake catching stick
94. Fishing pole
95. Make a measuring stick
96. Use as bobbins for macrame, netting, etc.
Other
97. Pile around the base of a house for insulation in winter (especially conifer boughs)
98. Use to tidy up tangled string
99. under give them to animals: fruit tree pruning if given to rabbits will have the bark chewed off and dry up nicely for kindling.
Many ideas from this list have been incorporated from other threads. Here are some links to those other great discussions:
https://permies.com/t/63272/Wood-chipper-advice
http://www.makeitmissoula.com/2012/01/how-to-recycle-wood/
https://permies.com/t/61382/permaculture-upcycling/ungarbage/Repurpose-Real-Christmas-Tree
https://permies.com/t/15706/Managing-flow-wood-brainstorm