26/11/2025
It's been great to be back in the coppice this week. Tuesday was a stunning day too, though it was pretty soggy today! Thanks to Fluff, Ike and Niall for their help, it's much more fun to work together.
This year's coupe is a bit bigger, 0.1Ha of mostly multi stemmed birch. This is part of woodland planted nearly 30 years ago and this is its first cut as we turn this woodland into coppice.
The first task was to find some straightish poles to use as hedgelaying stakes for our workshop this weekend. Not a very easy task among twisted and gnarly birch! We eventually cut about 50 though which should be enough.
As usual the firewood will be stacked in the woodland to dry a bit until Spring when the ground is dry enough to extract it. Most of the firewood is for our own use, but this year I hope to make some charcoal with offcuts and bits.
The brash is chipped in piles around the wood. We use this throughout the year to mulch other areas of the croft, and leave some to turn into compost. Piles from 2 years ago are well composted now so we'll sieve and use that for veggies next year.
Of course we're not too tidy, and plenty of brash, twigs and woodchip stays in the wood to nourish the soil and provide valuable habitats.
