Can you coppice hawthorn

Tearing branches may encourage diseases and wounds take longer to heal. It is also important to keep the flail sharp for an effective cut.

If possible leave a wide undisturbed margin adjacent to the hedge, ideally at least 2m wide. Previously cultivated margins can be left to regenerate naturally or can be sown with a mixture of native grass and wild flower seeds.

Pollen and nectar encourage insects, and the plants conceal the base of the hedge which can then provide a home and a run for small mammals. The margins can either have an annual cut in August, after the flowers have seeded, or be cut bi-annually in rotation.

This ensures some over-wintering vegetation is always provided. The cuttings should be removed. If a hedge is very straggly or overgrown, more drastic measures such as coppicing, may be needed.

Coppicing involves rejuvenating hedges by cutting down to near ground level. This encourages vigorous regrowth. Coppicing is best done in sections in order to reduce the impact on wildlife. During the winter, cut back the main stem to just above ground level. Cut at an angle to allow the water to run off. In the spring, several shoots will grow up, thus thickening the hedge. These young shoots may be grazed by deer or rabbits so it may be necessary to protect the shoots with netting or brash until fully established.

To thicken the hedge, cut shoots again at the end of the second winter, making the cut at about 45 cms from the base of the shoot. Many mature elm trees have died as a result of Dutch elm disease.

This disease is carried by the elm bark beetle which burrows beneath the bark of trees which are 10 or more years old. If elm hedges are coppiced in sections on a 15 to 20 year rotation, the growth of vigorous suckers will occur and the disease can be avoided. If i cut i down to 5 feet with the chainsaw i dont think it would survive without any leaves. I was thinking of cutting 3 or 4 feet off it a year and seeing if it would regrow new branches from the trunk.

Any hedging experts out there? Any advice gratefully received. Old Boar Member. Location West Wales. If you are thinking of laying it, buy some welding gloves. The thorns go through everything else Location Galloway. WRXppp said:. We had a hedge like this and we cut it down about 18 inches from the ground, cut at a 45 degree angle so rainwater runs off the stump.

After 3 years the regrowth is around 5ft tall and the gaps filled with a hedgerow mix. Best to do this in winter of course! Keep the trunks for a year and then log up, the best burning wood you will ever have, long lasting, little ash and the heat of coal. Xchap Member Mixed Farmer. Location Central Scotland. Exfarmer said:.

Hawthorn is the very best hedge plant you can have, it will withstand anything you can xhuck at it apart from glyphosate and MCPA. Bash it, beat it, flail it, saw it and it will laugh at you, just dont rip it out or spray it!

Simple way just saw it off and let it regrow. Best way , get someone to lay it. Kidds Member Horticulture. Location Near Beeston Castle.

Too dry under that tree. Pasty Member. Location Devon. I once did a hazel hedge a few meters at the bottom of my garden which was overstood. Worked a treat. Another option might be to plant up the gaps and coppice those shoots at a year old so they bush up and then pollard the big threes at 4' or whatever height is easy to work at. Or just flatten the lot as said and plant new ones in the gaps. You might even be able to use some of the sun shoots from the tops for new plants.

Not sure how that goes with hawthorn. The principal behind coppicing is that when you cut certain species off near their base, nature responds by producing several young, vigourous shoots as replacements and each of these shoots will make a coppicable 'pole' in about 10 years' time This is straightforward. You simply need to remove any obviously dead wood, ivy, bracken, etc. Be sure to remove any brambles, especially if they've grown up into the canopy of the trees.

You will find it almost impossible to manipulate the saplings if they have brambles in them. If not kept under control brambles alone can ruin a hedge in three or four years. Cut each bramble stem off at ground level and then pull it out in one piece.

It's easy to spot brambles in winter: they tend to keep many of their old green leaves which are clearly visible among the bare branches of hazel, ash, etc. Brambles do of course have their own valuable place in hedgerows, but only provided that they do not to climb into the tops of trees and suffocate them! This picture above right shows an old, tired and neglected hedge in which brambles have stifled new growth and over-mature ash trees have prevented light reaching the 'hedge' below.

Worst of all, cows, sheep or horses would easily pass through the gaps and holes. Cleaning, coppicing and laying will quickly turn this into a useful and productive hedge. Remember that healthy hedges need light and, in the battle of the hedgerow, "he who climbs highest lasts longest". The same hedge pictured right after it has been cleaned, stripped of brambles and ivy, coppiced and then laid.

Some of the largest ash boughs will probably be coppiced next year. The ivy has been cut through at ground level and although the remains are still visible higher up in the ash trees, it will soon die off. The laid hedges are already perfectly stock-proof but could benefit from more attention in a year or two when there are new young saplings to be incorporated into the lower levels of the hedge. Now is the time to harvest any timber which is ready for coppicing.

In the case of hazel, for example, anything more than cms in diameter at its thickest point is ready for harvesting. In woodland coppicing you would cut them off at the 'stump'. But if it's important that your hedge remain a stock-proof barrier, be sure to cut this timber about cms from the ground, leaving a barricade of stumps.

Some of these stumps may die but they provide support and structure while new shoots establish themselves. Try to cut the stumps on a slant so that rainwater runs off, reducing the risk of rot.

You will find it far easier to saw through this sort of thickness with a chain-saw! This stand of hazel is mostly about cms in diameter at its thickest point and ready for coppicing. It is thicker still at the base but it forms the end of a hedge that needs to be stock-proof and needs stumps cms high for rigidity. It also helps if you are systematic about the coppicing process.

As you cut through your 10 cms poles, drag them out of the hedge and lay them in a line parallel with the hedge but at least four or five metres away to leave a working passage along the hedge-line with all their heads pointing in towards the hedge. In the picture on the right, when 'processing' the poles cut from the hedge, they are roughly divided into thinner ones for 'kindling' and thicker ones for 'logs'.

A working passage of about five metres was left between the hedge and the timber to be 'processed'. Our rule of thumb is: if you can cut them with the shears they're kindling. If the resulting timber is neatly piled up with two ropes running transversally underneath them it's easy to lift the entire stack in one go with the forks or a tractor. The picture on the left shows the sorting process: brushwood for burning if it can't be used more productively!

Now it's easy to trim off the heads and side branches with a pair of shears leaving the bare poles ready for cutting into fire-wood when they've had a year or two to dry. To be really efficient, lay two strong ropes parallel to each other, about two metres apart, and lay all your poles across the middle of them. Gather the four ends together and the forks of a tractor will be able to lift away a large pile in one go.

In Normandy the feathery 'heads' and side branches were traditionally bundled into fagots which were stored and dried before being used to heat bread ovens. The same material was called 'brushwood' in England because you could make brushes with it.

The word 'fagot' existed in English too, but later came to mean something that was fairly valueless and ultimately became a disparaging term for a homosexual. However, fagots were still being made at Le Bosquet in the C21st! After coppicing-out the larger timber, you should now be left with timber you're planning to keep permanently as well as a clean line of younger wood up to about 7 cms thick.

Some of this young wood will be used for laying the hedge but the rest will be coppicable in the future. Assuming that you want your hedge to be stock-proof sheep, cattle, horses, etc. As you can see from the pictures, you will be cutting half-way through selected boughs so that they can be bent almost horizontally in four layers about 25 cms apart. It's important to plan and select carefully which boughs will be most suitable. You will probably find that there is a shortage of suitable candidates for the lowest level 25 cms from the ground.

If you tie a piece of string around the ones you've marked out for 'laying' you will be less likely to cut them down by mistake. Remember the golden rules of 'layering' a laid hedge:.

Take your time planning which saplings you will use. A long pole with a hook on the end will allow you to catch and bend them down into place. There should then be enough tension in the area of the bend that a single sharp blow with a small hatchet will make the necessary fracture. Another way to do this is to half saw through the sapling before you bend and pull it into position.

Make sure the laid sapling rises very slightly towards its tip and then fix it firmly in place, locking it in among other timber in the hedge and tying it into place with bio-degradable string such as old-fashioned sisal baler-twine. By the time this string rots the sapling will have become a solid and integral part of the hedge.

Some hedgers advise attaching the laid saplings to chestnut stakes hammered into the ground. This is advisable where there are long gaps in the hedge but, where possible, it is better to use the living, one-metre high stumps that are left from the coppicing process see picture right. The principal behind layering a 'laid' hedge is that when you 'wound' certain species, nature responds by exaggerated regeneration.