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By Craig Braunschweig 
August/September 2014

Try unsplit log rounds as an inexpensive and eco-minded material for your next landscaping or gardening project. You can create borders and soil-retaining walls with log rounds. They last about as long as milled lumber, and they provide more flexibility in garden design. As an added bonus, the landscaping is easy to fix if a log rots out, plus the wood will match the natural earth tones of your outdoor space.

To begin landscaping with logs, select the best pieces you can find. If you don’t have direct access to log rounds, check with a local firewood provider. Pace your garden off and set the logs on end in your desired shape. Setting the logs into a shallow trench will add stability on flat ground, and staking each one in place will help, too.

Create spectacular color displays by using the flat tops of the rounds as pedestals for potted plants. I like to allow my tomatoes to grow over the wall to create a feeling of an old wood structure being swallowed by new growth, and to help keep the leaves and fruit dry when watering the plants.

Craig Braunschweig
Redway, California

Read more: http://www.motherearthnews.com/organic-gardening/landscaping-with-logs-zm0z14aszkin.aspx#ixzz38EMddx3n