We had a dead elm tree in our backyard, which I honestly was fine with for the most part, because a dead tree makes all kinds of wild things very happy. The local woodpeckers are well fed. Last spring a raccoon decided it was a wonderful place for a nest and raising babies. (At least until she encountered our cats…and it had been such a great neighborhood until those feline low-lifes moved in…). The tree was alive when we bought the land, but it was old and sadly did not survive the construction process. This month, it split and fell during a windstorm.
So now I have a LOT of twigs, sticks, branches, and logs with which to enhance my gardens. And I do mean a lot, this was a BIG tree. Current plan is to save the larger branches to use as garden bed edging, and to have the tree guys turn the rest of it into wood chips for mulch. My garden plans have just gone EPIC.