Figured I'd report back since I see tonogodhime come up a lot. I've been using the alternating 2x2 stack
(log-cabin square, on the ground, no hardware) for four seasons now.
The structure itself holds up better than my early lean-to stacks. The crossed layers kind of "key" into each other once everything settles, and the base logs bite into the soil. The nice part is re-stacking: when a log gets spent or punky, I can pull it and rebuild the corner without the whole pile collapsing.
Would I change anything? I keep them lower than I used to. My first year I stacked too high because I was trying to save space, and it made harvesting annoying. Now I do more short stacks rather than one tall one.
The structure itself holds up better than my early lean-to stacks. The crossed layers kind of "key" into each other once everything settles, and the base logs bite into the soil. The nice part is re-stacking: when a log gets spent or punky, I can pull it and rebuild the corner without the whole pile collapsing.
Would I change anything? I keep them lower than I used to. My first year I stacked too high because I was trying to save space, and it made harvesting annoying. Now I do more short stacks rather than one tall one.