Coppicing the market garden copse

Just inside the gateway of our market garden we have a small copse of about 30 willow, to help prevent westerly winds from whipping across the field, and northerly gales from damaging our polytunnels. The copse had become overgrown with brambles, was harbouring rabbits, and many of the willows had become too large and had fallen over, hampering tractor access into the field. So over the past week we have cleared all the undergrowth, and coppiced all the willow, except for one line at the back, which will continue as a windbreak this winter while the coppiced stumps grow back during next spring and summer. The cleared wood has been sorted into logs for cutting for next winter's firewood, whips for planting as windbreaks around the chicken/maincrop fields, small twigs for composting, and large rotting pieces for leaving in a field corner as wildlife habitat.

Many thanks to everyone who helped with this warming winter project.