Sometimes on trash night, I stop and take wooden sticks and poles out of other people's trash--anything that looks different and that qualifies as a "stick" (e.g., a hockey stick, an old wooden-handled pitchfork). Mostly this has been a real casual hobby and low-frequency activity. On occasion, Janice and I have also bought a few sticks and poles that we knew would make the Stick Garden look more interesting.

Some of the more interesting sticks in the stick garden include: an oyster pole used to harvest oysters (certainly not native to Michigan). We've got a primitive old hay rake from Turkey. An old wooden chair made of branches. A butterfly net on a long wooden pole. My sister, Cheryl Bukoff, gave me some old-school ski poles. They are in the stick garden now.