Coppicing Trees for Future Forests

The day is warm and still.

There’s a hint of early autumn in the air.

I have been working in the gardens, coppicing trees.

This morning I coppiced this lovely Birch tree.

The trunk remains growing about a metre or so from the earth and will rapidly produce several new stems, that will thicken up to give even more wood for the cottage in a few short years.

Coppicing was carried out on all medieval woodlands and is the reason why there are so many old trees in counties of England.

Coppicing regularly will enable a tree to live for several thousand years!

The main stem will be sawn into small logs and stored in the barn.

The remaining small branches are shredded and used as a mulch on the Potager Beds! So everything is returned to the Earth.

Trees are a direct way of enabling the harvest of solar energy.Meanwhile,

as I worked, the cats relaxed, as only they can do…

And the bees kept working…

And the morning drifted effortlessly…

into a beautiful afternoon…