Whilst Winters are always busy, they are a good time to be catching up with learning so I finally managed to get a place on the Coppicing Course at Harcourt Arboretum and it was well worth the wait and in this article I share the things I learned on the day.

1. Coppicing is growing a crop of whatever you need. Stakes and binders for hurdles and fencing, Willow for baskets, Birch for plant supports and so on. Growing… a crop… no time for messing about – you are growing stuff, not making a pretty picture.

2. Binders (kept forgetting their name) … these are the thinner more flexible bits you weave in and out of the stakes – ideally at least 3m.

3. The Bill Hook is an essential tool for coppicing work that looks (and is) fearsome but once you get used to it – I guarantee you will have a friend for life.

4. Copparding (new term)… cutting down something to be above the knee but below your nose. This has the advantage of making it easy to harvest the associated crop.

5. Hazel coppicing stools take around 7 years to regenerate for the next round of coppicing.

6. You can judge the age of a stool (the base of the Hazel) by how wide it is – roughly 10 years for each 30cm in diameter. I wasn’t paying exact attention to this, but I think that was the gist of things.

7. You can coppice pretty much anything – Hazel and Willow are the most usual suspects but Birch, Oak, Sweet Chestnut (harder wood so good for stakes) amongst others are all done this way.

8. Be tidy – coppicing is harvesting so as you go along you want to be maximising your efficiency and minimising your wasted effort. For example, the stuff you can’t use for the main stakes & binders should be left in small manageable piles to avoid the underling getting back pains as they cart them away.

9. Nothing goes to waste – everything is used in one way or another whether it is a hazel hurdle, a dead hedge (2 rows of stakes, 30cm gap along the line and filled with bigger trimmings), or off into the charcoal burner – I noted the BBQ was only a few feet away.

10. Coppicing work is a great way to keep the finances ticking over in the winter months.

Older and wiser.