We made the most of a pleasant Sunday afternoon to coppice one of our hazel bushes at the allotment. The morning had been cloudy and drizzly but the clouds cleared away to leave us with some afternoon sunshine. It was pleasantly mild for the middle of December.
Every few years we coppice one of our hazel bushes. This stops them becoming too large and the branches provide us with pea sticks and bean poles. Once upon a time I’d use a pruning saw to cut back the trees but these days the jobs much easier to do using a battery operated saw.
The prunings have all been piled in a heap and will be sorted out as we need them. The tops of the branches make excellent pea sticks and the sturdier sections make good supports for runner beans and sweet peas.
The only problem is that they aren’t long lasting as, after a couple of years, they become brittle and have to be replaced. It’s just as well we have space for a couple of bushes.
The middle of the week, 14 December sees the earliest sunset times, for us, as from now we begin to get later sunsets. However, for much of the remainder of the month sunrise times get later. It will be around the 21 December before our actual daylight hours begin to increase.
We were lucky to see a skein of geese fly over the allotment while we were busy coppicing our hazel bush. I think they were Canada geese.
We also made a video of our coppicing which you can watch below.
We use all sorts of twigs and prunings for supporting various plants at the allotment. We do have to be careful using cuttings from our black elder as they root so easily. We’d be taken over by them. I know it’s early but so far our winter weather hasn’t been too bad. There are suggestions that it could turn colder for Christmas. Glad you got some rain. We usually get plenty of the stuff through winter. Hopefully, it won’t come in the form of snow!
I think it is neat that you harvest your own poles and sticks instead of buying the manmade ones. I cut some small branches of crape myrtle to prop up the amaryllis. We have had 2 inches of very welcome rain so far with the latest (unnamed, thank goodness) storm.