posted 10 years ago
Hi Alex,
I haven't seen or used this technique with logs, but I have seen a local permaculture designer use sunken pathways filled with LOTS of woodchips, to act as water soakage among other things. Excellent for growing mushrooms, too. I see no reason your idea wouldn't work the same way. Stacking functions, very permaculture!
I suspect that roots from some species will make their way to the soggy logs, but that the moisture level would be improved near the logs as well. The logs should help avoid further compaction below their level, until they are quite rotten.
I hope someone else can shed more light on how the roots of your veggies are likely to react to all this.
The paths will definitely sink as the logs rot, but I don't see this as much of a problem as long as you don't put too much effort into burying deeply, and you have more logs available!
'Theoretically this level of creeping Orwellian dynamics should ramp up our awareness, but what happens instead is that each alert becomes less and less effective because we're incredibly stupid.' - Jerry Holkins