Work Resumes in 2023

Work has resumed in the garden after a long late autumn and early winter break. We coppiced a somewhat overgrown hazel which is between the garden and the Festival Walk channel. It was casting a lot of shade and was heading towards damaging the wall. The plant has not been removed. It will grow back from the stump and after a few years we will need to cut it again. The process can be repeated over and over. Oliver Rackham the late and great historian of ancient woodlands and the English countryside thought that some of the coppice stools in the woods of Suffolk and Essex were hundreds of years old. Judging by the size, ours is not of vast antiquity but hopefully it will carrying on growing and being cut for a few more centuries.

Before.....

Coppicing is an ancient technique for growing small wood for fuel, fencing, baskets and many other uses. We simply cut most of the wood up and put on the pile in the garden for the fungi and insects to eat. Very different from cutting the wood to maximise the material suitable for current needs. That must have taken a lot of skill.

..... and after