Unlimited access >

What to use as filler for a large Brush Box

What do you recommend as filler for a fairly tall brush box? Live cut greenery dies quickly and looks awful. I’ve looked on amazon for cheap fake greenery but it’s all so tiny that I still don’t think it would work after spending a fortune on several dozen bundles. Any suggestions of what to buy online or something natural that works well? Please tell me what you do with your brush box jump.

Do you have a picture of the box?

If there’s a Michaels or AC Moore I used to get stuff for our brush ad flower boxes from there - waited for sales of course. Also if there’s a Big Lots, Walmart or At Home. At Home usually has a fairly large floral department IMO pretty cheesy stuff but for greenery should be OK

2 Likes

Plastic flowers and greenery are just more landfill junk IMO. Ask a landscaper, keen gardener or property owner with trees if you can have some brush aka long, straight twigs for your box. I recently filled a brush box with twigs from a cherry plum tree that was on its way out - perfect stuff. No leaves yet this time of year.

4 Likes

So true - and as they fall apart, you get little plastic bits in your ring and worse, your fields.

We use cedar branches, there are tons all around and someone is always trimming a hedge.

1 Like

Another vote for a Christmas tree (fake) that is being tossed out. Take apart the branches and use those.

This will keep the dead Christmas tree out of the landfill.

Posting on a local facebook group will likely find you a tree that someone was tossing but has not gotten around to it yet.

1 Like

I purchased fake flowers for my wedding decorations from tableclothsfactory.com. Granted this was in 2019, and it looks like their prices have gone up a little since then, but I’m guessing they’re still cheaper than dropshippers on Amazon.

Some of them were definitely prettier than others, but they were MUCH cheaper than anything I found anywhere else and looked miles better than anything similarly priced (or higher, even) from amazon. I actually just pulled some out of my basement yesterday and can snap some pictures if you’d like.

There is a kind of fake brush that they use for steeplechase fences. I don’t know how expensive it is, or where to get it, but it is pretty long lasting.

The Jump for Joy jumps have good fake brush too. I’m sure it’s all some kind of plastic, but at least this kind is more durable and possibly could be recycled in the future.

I’ve seen some out here in BC Canada - there must be a North American distributor.

Jump4joyusa.com is the US Distributor website.

a barn here had old corn broom heads for brush box fill/toppers.

5 Likes

Fake flowers, yes. My barn’s outdoor arena is littered with those plastic leaves that have fallen off the fake flowers. I don’t think you’d have as much of an issue with “shedding” with old fake Christmas trees. Those needles are usually on there pretty good, after all, that’s one of the big selling points of a fake tree right? I don’t have any ethical concerns using fake Christmas trees for jump decoration. If you get an old one that was about to be thrown out, it was destined for a landfill anyway. By taking it you’re giving it new purpose. But I’m also a bit of a trash hoarder and get a huge kick out of giving new life to stuff that was going to be thrown out :see_no_evil:

Watch out for pampas grass - it’s incredibly invasive here in CA and very hard to get rid of. Those feathery heads can have up to 100,000 seeds in them, and it’s considered an invasive weed in California, Oregon, Washington and Texas and banned in Hawaii, Australia and New Zealand.

4 Likes

Steeplechase brush. You are also trying to teach your horse to brush through the brush–not just jump over it. So you want something that is “brush-able” and encourages it.

As jumps get bigger you really don’t want to be that guy whose horse jumps 4 feet at Training level XC going over the brush instead of going through it. Having been that person, trust me on this.