Bay Trees in beds ok!

I have lots of Bay Laurel (Laurus nobilis) logs from a few trees I cut in February. I noticed some random pieces in the yard have mycelium on them already.. wondering if I can use them in Hügel beds..? I plan on mixing with alder and pine and some maple.



Any help would be greatly appreciated. These will be my first beds✨

I put all kinds of wood in there. My opinion is that everything degrades, I'm not picky. I've put in small cedar branches, everything. The only stuff I avoid is wood fresh-cut that tends to resprout. Ask me how I know... And let me know if you want a whole bunch of crepe myrtle.

That’s great! I cut a large group of bay to make light for the garden and was just curious because it is so aromatic. I love the smell of the wood! Good to know it can all end up feeding the land and me! It does seem like it’ll probably degrade slowly because it’s  so dense, I put it mostly in the bottom half of the beds.

Coming to life

All done with the first beds. Something tells me the bay is too dense or maybe has too much strong smell (pepper wood) but I’m just going to keep using it until it’s all buried. Fingers crossed.

Would love to hear from anyone who has used Bay wood just to reassure myself.

Thanks!!

Hi Jesse,

I have only used small amounts of bay wood (because of availability) in my hugelbeds. However, I don’t think it will be a problem in larger quantities.

I have heard that it is different from some other members of the Lauraceae family, so cyanide shouldn’t be an issue. Besides, if it is green wood it will décompose slowly and any gases would therefore also be released slowly (and into the open air rather than a confined space such as a greenhouse).