I found this article so interesting. It lead me into a wonderful rabbit hole of internet articles about coppicing on a rainy Saturday morning here! Native New Zealand trees are mostly evergreen, but I bought my property from an English couple who had planted many English plants and trees including mulberries and hazels. My path going down to my wildflower meadow is lined with the hazels which have become pretty thick and unruly and are crowing out the light of the hellebores and other wee flowers between them. So thank you very much, I now know what my task for them will be when it starts getting a bit cooler!
All the very best. And I adore your articles. Thank you so much :)
Thank you Emma-Jane. I always find it funny how we all grow plants from other countries in gardens. Here in the UK it’s lots of plants from New Zealand!
That sounds like a great plan with the hazels, it’s that kind of under planting that really loves this kind of coppice habitat.
Is there an optimum age for first cut and then years between coppicing hazels? Mine are now 11 and growing strongly. Also, I love the idea that aurochs or mammoths might be re-introduced but I would be jolly annoyed if they came into my garden! I am fed up with the deer eating everything on sight, don't need anything bigger!
haha! I think we would all be quite surprised to see a mammoth in our gardens :D
With the hazel age, I've read lots of guides and books over the years and they are all a bit woolly (no mammoth pun intended) on this - personally I think it is easier to judge on how strongly they are growing. If you look at the pics of the stumps in this article, you'll see they are varying sizes. Some were tiny single stemmed, others chunky and multistemmed - no doubt due to access to light and water etc. My guess is they were all planted at the same time, probably intended as a coppice or for nuts.
A good guide might be that at least one or more stems are over head height and the thickness for bean poles, which are usually a bit thicker than a broomstick handle. Perhaps the base should be at least 5cm diameter, that's usually a good benchmark for coppicing. Some of these are bigger at 10cm +
Basically, if the plant is vigorous, it's ready. I'll have a think about how to explain and demonstrate this properly as I'm probably going to follow up with a proper 'how to' article soon. Your question has been useful for getting my brain whirring for that.
I found this article so interesting. It lead me into a wonderful rabbit hole of internet articles about coppicing on a rainy Saturday morning here! Native New Zealand trees are mostly evergreen, but I bought my property from an English couple who had planted many English plants and trees including mulberries and hazels. My path going down to my wildflower meadow is lined with the hazels which have become pretty thick and unruly and are crowing out the light of the hellebores and other wee flowers between them. So thank you very much, I now know what my task for them will be when it starts getting a bit cooler!
All the very best. And I adore your articles. Thank you so much :)
Emma-Jane
Thank you Emma-Jane. I always find it funny how we all grow plants from other countries in gardens. Here in the UK it’s lots of plants from New Zealand!
That sounds like a great plan with the hazels, it’s that kind of under planting that really loves this kind of coppice habitat.
Is there an optimum age for first cut and then years between coppicing hazels? Mine are now 11 and growing strongly. Also, I love the idea that aurochs or mammoths might be re-introduced but I would be jolly annoyed if they came into my garden! I am fed up with the deer eating everything on sight, don't need anything bigger!
haha! I think we would all be quite surprised to see a mammoth in our gardens :D
With the hazel age, I've read lots of guides and books over the years and they are all a bit woolly (no mammoth pun intended) on this - personally I think it is easier to judge on how strongly they are growing. If you look at the pics of the stumps in this article, you'll see they are varying sizes. Some were tiny single stemmed, others chunky and multistemmed - no doubt due to access to light and water etc. My guess is they were all planted at the same time, probably intended as a coppice or for nuts.
A good guide might be that at least one or more stems are over head height and the thickness for bean poles, which are usually a bit thicker than a broomstick handle. Perhaps the base should be at least 5cm diameter, that's usually a good benchmark for coppicing. Some of these are bigger at 10cm +
Basically, if the plant is vigorous, it's ready. I'll have a think about how to explain and demonstrate this properly as I'm probably going to follow up with a proper 'how to' article soon. Your question has been useful for getting my brain whirring for that.
I would love a 'how-to' on this so look forward to it. Thanks very much!