Coppicing hazel

Coppicing Hazel

In this lesson, we'll look at how to harvest and process hazel branches for a range of useful garden purposes, and why you should make use of natural materials from your garden.

The Nuttery at Sissinghurst

• Our hazel comes from the Nuttery, which has changed a lot over the years.
• Vita and Harold had it planted with Polyanthus, which we replaced with more naturalistic woodland planting when those were no longer thriving.
• These are all nut trees planted in the Victorian era.
• The hazel foliage emerges at the end of April or early May; then the underplanting of Epimedium, Trillium, fritillaries, white bluebells and anemones comes into flower below.
• It's beautiful but also really productive, as these trees give us material with a range of uses such as benders (hazel hoops) for rose training, strong poles for staking tall plants such as Delphinium, and peasticks (brushy material used for staking many perennials).

Harvesting the Stems

• Traditionally, you coppice hazel (cutting all the stems right back to ground level).
• If coppicing in a traditional way, we think a five-year cycle is the sweet spot for producing the kind of stems that are most productive for what we need.
• After that, they become too old and woody to use; before that, the stems are too thin and whippy and not well-branched.
• Here in the garden, we don't coppice the tree fully, as we want the trees standing.
• We selectively take out stems that are the right size for using, which means there's always a range of stem sizes within the tree.
• Thinner stems can be taken out with loppers; thicker ones with a pruning saw.

Processing the Stems

Look at the stem - think about how you can make use of most of this material.

• I might cut the thickest bottom 4ft off, and then the top part with the twiggy ends will be ideal as quite a tall pea stick for staking taller perennials such as Campanula, Echinops, Aconitum.
• We use a bill hook to cut off the bottom 4ft or so of the stem with a couple of cuts. This becomes a nice, simple stick to use in the cutting garden.
• Leaving a sharp point at the end is really helpful for pushing the pea stick into the ground in summer.
• Take off anything that's snapped and then the very ends of the twigs that are just a bit too thin. Then you've got a stick that's really useful in the garden in summer.
• I'll make pea sticks of different sizes - 1ft, 4ft, 5ft - which will all have different uses for different kinds of plants.
• The thinnest stems can become short pea sticks for staking short plants such as aquilegias or small geraniums.
• I'll go through the whole bush selecting the most useful sticks and processing them, and quite quickly, you'll get a lot of material with very little waste.

Timing of Harvesting and Processing

Coppice around early December - you want most of the leaves to have dropped, but don't wait too long or you'll have catkins on your pea sticks.

• It's quite a short window for harvesting, but once you've cut them, you can leave them and come back to process later - we spend an hour on frosty mornings processing the sticks all through December to February.
• Like all winter gardening, do as much as you can to make spring and summer easier - winter is the only time in the gardening calendar when you stand a chance of keeping up with the pace of the garden.
• So process and bundle your sticks, and then in summer, you can just grab a bundle that you know is perfect for staking a particular plant in the borders.

Using Local Materials in Your Garden

If you have space, I'd recommend you plant some hazels.

• As well as treating it as an attractive garden plant, think about how it can help you in your garden and prune it and use it accordingly.
• There are other options - we use hazel because it's so easy and the twigs grow in a really useful branching way, but you can also use birch or beech.
• You can also use willow, but it often resprouts once in the ground.

With any pruning you're doing, think about whether it's useful. Always think about how you can re-use woody waste in the garden to minimise the amount you have to throw away, or even worse, burn - something you want to avoid.

• Using your own natural materials is a really sustainable way to garden. It also looks much nicer than plastic and bamboo canes, so why not use what you already have.

Re-using the Hazel

Hazel only lasts for a year once cut, as it gets so brittle, so only harvest what you need for the coming year.

However, you can re-use it during the same year:

• I use small sticks for early-flowering perennials such as aquilegias and geraniums, and when I cut those down, I take out the stakes and re-use them for a later-flowering plant
• any herbaceous perennial that flowers before midsummer, we tend to cut down to ground level after flowering to encourage a fresh flush of foliage and more flowers later.

The joy of winter gardening is that you're doing more of these craft skills rather than pure horticulture

Plant Directory

Aconitum species and cultivars

Aconites, monk's hoods

Hardy herbaceous perennials or biennials

Ranunculaceae

Anemone nemorosa

Wood anemone

Hardy herbaceous perennial from a rhizome

Ranunculaceae

Aquilegia species and cultivars

Columbines

Hardy herbaceous perennials or short-lived perennials

Ranunculaceae

Betula species and cultivars

Birches

Hardy deciduous trees

Betulaceae

Campanula species and cultivars

Bellflowers

Hardy herbaceous perennials

Campanulaceae

Coryllus avellana

Hazel

Hardy deciduous tree

Betulaceae

Delphinium species and cultivars

Larkspurs

Hardy herbaceous perennials or annuals

Ranunculaceae

Echinops species and cultivars

Globe thistles

Hardy herbaceous perennials

Asteraceae

Epimedium species and cultivars

Barrenworts

Hardy herbaceous perennials

Berberidaceae

Fagus sylvatica

Common beech

Hardy deciduous tree

Fagaceae

Fritillaria meleagris

Snakeshead fritillary

Hardy bulbous perennial

Liliaceae

Geranium species and cultivars

Hardy geraniums, cranesbills

Hardy herbaceous perennials

Geraniaceae

Hyacinthoides hispanica 'Alba' or Hyacinthoides hispanica 'White City'

White bluebell

Hardy bulbous perennial

Asparagaceae

Primula cultivars

Polyanthus

Hardy herbaceous and semi-evergreen perennials

Primulaceae

Salix species and cultivars

Willows

Hardy deciduous shrubs or trees

Salicaceae

Trillium species and cultivars

Birthroots

Hardy herbaceous perennials

Melanthiaceae

Glossary

Billhook

A tool with a wide, sickle-shaped blade with a sharp inner edge, used for cutting branches or other woody material.

Coppice

A woodland management technique where a tree or shrub down to ground level or very near ground level, encouraging new stems to grow from the cut-off point (the 'stool'), which are then harvested during the next cut. Hazel is generally coppiced every 5-7 years; different trees may be coppiced in rotation to provide materials continuously.