Woodland Garden

Coppicing Hazel for Landscape Use

When we talk of coppicing, we think of traditional woodland management, with acres of an evenly aged monoculture of coppice stools. These would be cut in cyclical coupes, typically on a seven to twenty year rotation, dependant upon species and intended use. There is, however, another way to use the method of coppicing (cutting a

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The New Shrubscape

I’m working through a new approach to creating shrubscapes, shrub-meadows, woody meadows, shrub-prairies, or shrub-steppe (take your pick). This is a natural follow-on from my current work investigating coppiced landscapes (see previous article in menu, or link at bottom) and is a landscape method in its own right, but also a linkage mechanism between coppicescape

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Coppice as an Urban Landscape (Eco)System

To create more vibrant, ecologically oriented urban landscapes, we need to change our perception of what landscapes are and how we manage them. Usually, maintenance is seen as a burden, when it should be appreciated as an asset, providing social and environment health and ecosystem services. A landscape ecosystem should not be a static thing,

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Summer Pruning the Woodland Garden

It’s August and the woodland edge garden has become a bit shady and dense; time for a bit of summer pruning. Multi-stem small trees like Corylus, Euonymus and Viburnum all throw up epicormic shoots and get congested, especially the hazel, whilst the understory plantings have finished flowering and look tall, bedraggled and invaded by the

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