Coppicing the Hedge

You may remember a previous posting, where I said this hedge had got too overgrown to lay.

We started coppicing several of the trees in February.

Here are Paul, Will, Eric, Andy, Jim, Derek and Peter sorting the material into firewood, stakes and poles as well as finding some lumps of metal, barbed wire, bottles and cans in the hedge.

More chainsaw work last Sunday but we have to stop cutting now because it is the beginning of the nesting season for birds.

 The gang (Phil, Steve, Jerry, Roger & Andy) clearing out the arisings so that the tree stumps (stools) can get enough light to send up new shoots

Roger raking ivy off the hedge bank ready for planting new hawthorn and hazel whips (very young trees) to fill in the gaps.

  

We had to construct a dead hedge to keep people off the regenerating hedge plants. (Jerry and Peter with Andy, Will and Eric in the background)

The tangled mass of twigs and branches is held in place by hedging stakes prepared on site and whacked in by Phil, amongst others.

This should last a few years, by which time there should be plenty of new shoots for laying into a re-juvenated hedge.

Photos by Derek