Podcasts about Coppicing

We are at the time of the year to start pepper seeds indoors. Pepper seeds, can be notoriously slow to germinate, sometimes taking up to three weeks. We have tips to speed up pepper seed germination, with a little help from America's Favorite Retired College Horticulture Professor, Debbie Flower.Have you heard of coppicing? It's a drastic pruning technique where some woody plants are cut back, close to ground level to stimulate the growth of vigorous shoots. I happened upon a demonstration of coppicing in a perennial garden recently. What the heck is coppicing? We have the details.It's all in Episode 309 of Garden Basics -  Pepper Seed Starting Tips. And Coppicing of woody ornamental plants.We're podcasting from Barking Dog Studios here in the beautiful Abutilon Jungle in Suburban Purgatory, it's the Garden Basics with Farmer Fred podcast, brought to you today by Smart Pots and Dave Wilson Nursery. Let's go!Previous episodes, show notes, links, product information, and transcripts at the home site for Garden Basics with Farmer Fred, GardenBasics.net. Transcripts and episode chapters also available at Buzzsprout.Pictured:  Pepper SeedlingsLinks: Subscribe to the free, Beyond the Garden Basics Newsletter https://gardenbasics.substack.com Smart Pots https://smartpots.com/fred/ Dave Wilson Nursery https://www.davewilson.com/home-garden/Beyond the Garden Basics Newsletter: More Pepper Germination TipsFair Oaks Horticulture CenterUniversity of Washington Native Plant Coppice GardenPropagation Mats for Seed StartingDramm Water Nozzles (1000 holes)One Gallon Pump Sprayer with adjustable nozzleGot a garden question? • Leave an audio question without making a phone call via Speakpipe, at https://www.speakpipe.com/gardenbasics• Call or text us the question: 916-292-8964. • Fill out the contact box at GardenBasics.net• E-mail: fred@farmerfred.com All About Farmer Fred: The GardenBasics.net websiteThe Farmer Fred Rant! Blog http://farmerfredrant.blogspot.comFacebook:  "Get Growing with Farmer Fred" Instagram/Threads: farmerfredhoffman https://www.instagram.com/farmerfredhoffman/Farmer Fred Garden Minute Videos on YouTube As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases from possible links mentioned here.Thank you for listening, subscribing and commenting on the Garden Basics with Farmer Fred podcast and the Beyond the Garden Basics Newsletter.

Discover the fascinating ancient art of coppicing as we visit Priory Grove in Wales' Wye Valley, where the technique is still practised on a small scale to benefit both people and wildlife. We meet site manager Rob and contractor Joe to learn more about the coppicing carried out here, and how this interaction between people and nature has enabled the two to develop and evolve in tandem. Also in this episode, find out how an unfortunate end for ash trees resulted in a fantastic sea of wild garlic, the team's efforts to encourage dormice, bats, pine martens and other wildlife and which tree to identify by likening the trunk to elephants' feet!  Don't forget to rate us and subscribe! Learn more about the Woodland Trust at woodlandtrust.org.uk Transcript You are listening to Woodland Walks, a podcast for the Woodland Trust presented by Adam Shaw. We protect and plant trees for people, for wildlife.  Adam: Well, today I am off to Priory Grove, which is next door really to the River Wye near Monmouth in Wales to meet the site manager Rob there who's gonna give me a bit of a tour. It's predominantly made up of ancient woodland and provides a wide range of habitats for wildlife. Things like roe, fallow deer, they're known to forage throughout the area, and a wide variety of bird species, including the tawny owl, sparrowhawk, and the great spotted woodpecker, which can all be seen on the wing here. All very exciting and I've just got to find it and find Rob.  Rob: Hello, I'm Rob Davies, site manager, South East Wales.  Adam: So tell me a little bit about where we are and why this is significant.  Rob: This is Priory Grove woodland. It's quite a large site on the outskirts of Monmouth, but nobody really knows what its history is. It's it's called Priory Grove, presumably because it was attached to one of the monastic estates round here. And that probably accounts for its survival as one of the one of the largest ancient woodlands next to Monmouth. And it did retain a lot of its coppice woodland, which is quite important for biodiversity.  Adam: Right. And what we're, I mean, we're standing by some felled, are these oak?  Rob: These are oak. Yes, oak, oak in length.  Adam: So why why have these been felled?  Rob: This is part of the coppice restoration programme, so coppicing on this site has been a management tool that's been used for hundreds if not thousands of years in this area and it's used to produce products like this, this oak that will go into timber framing and furniture and all those good things. And also, firewood is part of the underwood and the the the hazel and the the the understory coppice. So products for people and in the past it was used for all kinds of things before we had plastic. But it's still very useful, and so because it didn't cease until recently on this site, the animals and plants and the fauna that relies upon this method that have evolved with it essentially in the last 10,000 years or so since we've been managing woods in this way, still are present here on this site or in the local area. So if you continue the cycle you continue this interaction with the wildlife and you can help to reverse the biodiversity declines. So it's very holistic, really this management technique. But it does mean that to make space for the coppice regrowth, because trees don't grow under trees, you know it needs the light. The light needs to be there for the coppice to come up again. You have to take out some of these mature oaks that were planted 150, 200 years ago, with the intention of being used in the future. So we're planting things and we're carrying out the plans, we're bringing them to fruition, what people enacted a couple of hundred years ago.  Adam: It it's interesting, isn't it, because it it it is an ancient woodland, but that doesn't mean it's an untouched woodland, because for hundreds of years it's it's been managed. Man has had a hand in this and not only that, commerce has had a hand in that, so often I think we think of these things as a dichotomy. You have ancient woodland, nice, pristine sort of nature, and then you have sort of horrible invasive commerce. Actually, I think what's interesting about this site is that there isn't that dichotomy. They both work in tandem, is that fair?   Rob: That's right, it's a false dichotomy. So the reason these woods have survived is because they were used for people, and because of the way they're managed, coppicing and thinning is quite a sensitive technique, it allows space for nature to be present and to develop and evolve in tandem, so they're not mutually exclusive.  Adam: Yes. So tell me about coppicing is an important part of this site, tell me a little bit about what you're doing at the moment with that.  Rob: Yeah, so we've had a grant actually from the Wye Valley AONB from, supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund, to to do some coppicing work on stands that were coppiced about 20 years ago. So we're continuing that cycle. And we've been working with a company called Wye Coppice Community Interest Company, Wye Coppice CIC, and they're quite developed in, in the Wye Valley area. And we formed a good relationship with them and through them we've been able to do half a hectare of coppicing up on the other slope higher up in the site there. If you like we can go up and meet Joe?  Adam: That would be wonderful. Yeah. You you lead on I will follow. Well, you can hear from this I'm a bit out of breath, we've claimed, OK, I'll be embarrassed to say it's a hill, a small incline, but we've come across this stand of of felled trees. So just tell me a bit about what's going on here.  Rob: Exactly. So all these stumps you can see scattered throughout the stand. This is the coppice, so it's cut down to just above base ground level there now and it will just regrow. So it's kind of a natural defence strategy that we're just exploiting. So it's it's been used to, it's, you know, since it evolved things like hazel especially, it‘s used to being browsed off by animals, the animals move on and then the tree just comes back. So it's like a phoenix strategy it comes back, back up again. We're just exploiting that. So we'll cut the tree to base and then we'll protect the regrowth from the browsing animals and then the tree will come again.  Adam: Right, and this is the work done by Joe?  Rob: Yeah, this yeah so this is the work done by Joe Weaver. Joe's just down the end there actually if you want to come and meet him.  Adam: OK, let's go have it let's go meet him. Ohh I've got stuck. OK, so Joe, this is all your handiwork.  Joe: It is, yes.  Adam: Tell me a bit about what what it is you do then.  Joe: So I run Wye Coppice CIC, we're a coppice contracting company and working with Woodland Trust, Natural Resource Wales and Wildlife Trusts throughout the Wye Valley and we're embarking on a project to restore areas of the Wye Valley to restore, do a coppice restoration project for for various organisations throughout the Wye Valley. The what you see, what you see here is about 1 1/2 acres of cut down trees with 7 or 8 standards.  Adam: What are standards?  Joe: The standards are the trees that we've left behind, so, so they're the large, they're the larger trees.  Adam: Oh, I see right. So you wouldn't be coppicing, these are very well established big trees, you don't coppice trees like that, you coppice quite small trees, don't you?  Joe: Yes, so all the small diameter understory trees we've cut down to ground level and and they will, they will resprout and grow back again. We can then come back in 10 years and recut them and have a healthy supply of continue, a continual healthy supply of pole wood.  Adam: And yeah, so what you're trying to get with coppicing is sort of quite it's quite small diameter wood, is that correct?  Joe: Yes, generally speaking, so this is a restoration project you can see this first cut is fairly large diameter. And so most of this will go to make charcoal but generally speaking after 10, maybe 15 years of growth, we'll have poles about sort of thumb size and maybe up to about 50 pence diameter.  Adam: Right. And that's ideal size, is it?  Joe: And that's a really good size for products like bean poles, hedging stakes and binders that go on the top of naturally laid hedging and then various other pole wood applications.  Adam: And and when you see a coppiced tree, evidence that it's been coppiced, there's, I'm trying to look over there, is is this where you see lots of different branches actually coming out from the stump in the ground? That's evidence that's been coppiced, cause it not just one thing grows, lots of them?  Joe: That's right. So you can, if you have one birch tree standing up, for example, you can cut that down to the ground, and when you come back in a few months' time, you'll notice about 5 or 6 shoots coming from that one stump at the bottom of the ground. So if we can protect that from deer browsing and rabbit browsing, then those stems, those five or six shoots will grow up into individual stems that we can then use use in pole wood products.  Adam: It's odd, isn't it that that happens, though, that you chop down one sort of main stem and you get four or five coming back, that's sort of an  odd natural thing to happen, isn't it?  Joe: It is. I think it's the tree's response to the stress of being cut down. So it sort of puts out a lot of it puts a lot of energy into regrowing new growth to try to survive because essentially these broadleaf species, trees, they're they're forever growing, you can cut them down they'll regrow, cut them down again, they'll regrow again. So it's a constant cycle of of regrowth.  Adam: Yeah it's it's like sort of, you know, thumbing their nose at you isn't it, going well, you cut me down well I'm gonna come back fivefold. You know, that's it's a sort of really funny response.  Joe: Indeed. But we can reap the benefits of that.  Adam: Yeah no, no, it's, I get, I get why that's good. And coppicing itself, that, and that's an ancient art, isn't it?  Joe: It has, certainly here in the Wye Valley it was practised at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution to produce charcoal to power the Industrial Revolution until coal was iintroduced and so it happened for hundreds and hundreds of years here.  Adam: Right. So you think, do you think I mean there's no need for you to be an historical expert on the history of coppicing, but do you think that's the first big sign of it happening, sort of Industrial Revolution time?  Joe: Certainly around here it is yeah, and there's some of the coupes that we've cut, some of the coppice areas that we've cut here, we've found evidence of charcoal hearths. So you can see flat areas with bits of charcoal sort of sliding down the bank.  Adam: So that would be ancient sites in here, well, ancient, I mean, a few 100 years old of them actually making charcoal in this woodland?  Joe: Yes, in this woodland, throughout the Wye Valley all the way throughout the Wye Valley here, yes.  Adam: Amazing. Now so your company, it's not just a traditional sort of private business, it is a a different sort of form. Just explain how that works.  Joe: So we run a community interest company and that allows us to access grant funding if we need to. Essentially, we're run as a private business, but we are able to do community outreach work as well and that's part of what we do is to try to educate people about sustainable woodland management.  Adam: And how did you get involved in all of this then? Did you grow up as a boy going I want to chop down trees to make fences.  Joe: No, I didn't. I was walking in the Dolomites, I saw two stoats fighting and thought woodland life is for me *laughs*.  Adam: Ok, well, fantastic, never heard that, so inspired by the the battle between two stoats and the and and the Dolomites. That's fantastic, but a hard life, I would have thought to run a business to, I mean it's physical work anyway, but that's my perception from the outside, is it hard work?  Joe: It it can be very difficult, it does have its benefits. Obviously it keeps you fit and it gets you outside but yes, it is a hard life and and you know it's it's quite a technical job as well and the training is expensive so we're trying to introduce a training programme as well through through our through our business Wye Coppice to try to get young people interested in woodland management.  Adam: And do you find that people sometimes don't understand or or perhaps disagree with the fact that commerce and nature can be actually mutually beneficial? Do you find that an issue at all?  Joe: Yes I do. Yes, and we're we're we're always willing to stop and talk to dog walkers especially. Shortly after COP26, we had two dog walkers come past and shout at us for chopping the trees down, after sitting down with them and having a cup of tea, they bought a bag of charcoal off us.  Adam: Right ok very good there we are. You're bringing them round one by one, one by one, those customers are coming over. Well brilliant and we've had not a bad day. I thought I might have to put my wet weather gear on, but it's been it's been OK. Anyway well, that's brilliant thank you very much. That's been really interesting.  Joe: Thank you.  Adam: So we've got this stand of trees we're looking at Rob. A couple couple of oak. Did you say that was a lime?   Rob: That's a lime yeah.   Adam: That's the lime, that that one with lots of ridges in it is that the lime?  Rob: That's it, yeah.  Adam: That's the lime. So why have you left these trees? Is there particular reasons you didn't take these ones out?  Rob: Yeah. So these as you can see, these are all mature trees and so you don't take these decisions lightly. So when we coppice this sort of half a football field area here, there were thirteen of these big mature trees, trees you can barely get your hands around as they're so large, taken a couple of hundred years to grow, so you've got to be quite careful and quite selective, although you need the light. There's an old adage about oak trees, it goes something like this that to fell an oak tree you need three things. You need a good eye, a sharp axe and a cold heart because these trees, you know they've been grown and nurtured and developed, and they're impressive life forms. And so it's not something you do without considering it very carefully so so you can see a couple of trees in here which are a couple of oaks, good size, but they're full of ivy, very dense ivy and that's very good for wintering bats. For hibernation, or for potentially summer roosting.  Adam: So the bats would live just amongst the Ivy, they'd sleep amongst the ivy?  Rob: Yeah when it gets as dense as this, when it's really all knotted, entwined, there's lots of gaps behind it. You could stick your hand in and find little cavities and several species of bat, especially pipistrelle, they they will hibernate over winter in this kind of growth. So you really don't want to be disturbing this.  Adam:  Right. And and what what's, is there something specific about lime that wildlife like is there any particular wildlife?  Rob: Well, it's good for bees. It's good good good pollen.  Adam: You get beehives in there? Oh I see, the pollen itself is good.  Rob: They like the flowers. Yeah yeah it produces lots of the small leaved lime it produces lots of good flowers and and it will attract aphids which is actually a food source for for dormice in the summer. So they they feed on the feed on the lime sap, you know if you park your car under a lime tree, you'll get this very sticky kind of substance coming off it.  Adam: Yes, yeah, yeah. Of course it does. Yes. Yeah, yeah.  Rob: So that attracts aphids, attracts the dormice, it's good for insects who like nectar as well. So it's a it's a very valuable tree and and you know  Adam: So interesting it's it's not valuable commercially, it's valuable for nature.  Rob: Yeah, absolutely. And it's quite it's quite a special tree in the in the Wye Valley, it doesn't occur much outside this area naturally, and it's kind of an ancient woodland indicator in this part of the world, perhaps not officially, but it's a.  Adam: OK. Any other trees we've got here?  Rob: Yeah. The rest of the trees, then are beech.  Adam: Right and you've kept those why?  Rob: Yeah, because you can see if you look at this one here, it's got quite a few cavities in it at the base at the top, beech tends to do that. It tends to take, form little cavities, rot holes and ways in, and that's ways in for fungus and then they eat out and hollow the tree. So the potential for harbouring bats again is very high in these trees. Without sort of going into them, doing some invasive exploration, you can't tell, but it's it's very high potential for bats. So again, bats, all species of bats in this country are protected under law because they've had massive declines like a lot of woodland species. And so we'll do everything we can to retain that habitat.  Adam: It's it's the Field of Dreams, philosophy. You you build it and they will come.  Rob: Yeah, yeah. This as long as it stays there, it'll always be valuable as habitat and so at least then, there are future sort of veteran trees within this stand.  Adam: It is interesting you you've already, I mean, we've only done a short part of this walk so far, but you talked about whoever was managing this woodland 100 years ago knew what they were talking about. And I think that's fascinating that we don't know who that person is or who who they, who those people were. And in 100 years time, people won't know who you were p.sumably, but the the evidence of your work will be here. They'll go yeah, that was a good bloke who did all this and left us with something.  Rob: That's it, you you don't plant trees for yourself, you plant trees for the future generation so you know, I won't see the oaks I plant develop. I'll be dead long before they mature and it's the same for the person who did this. But you can see the ones we took out, the ones I took out and selected were tall and straight. And that means that the coppice is well managed, because there was enough light for the hazel in the understory to come up straight away. If you cut hazel to the ground and you protect it, in a couple of years, it'll be way above six, eight foot and it'll just continue to get higher and higher over the next few years. And what that does is it shades the stem of the oak and it prevents side branching. So you get this very tall initial first stem. And that's what you're looking for. And that's what these trees had. So this would have clearly been cared for and these trees have been selected, they were on a journey from the moment they were planted.  Adam: OK. And just on my journey of education about trees, how do, what, they're beech, I wouldn't be able to spot that myself, what tells you they're beech?  Rob: It's a smooth trunk. If you look at this one here now you can see I always think of them as sort of elephant legs. They're grey and they're tall and they're smooth and they quite often have sort of knobbly bits on the base like an elephant's foot. And if you go through a stand of pure beech, it looks like it looks like a stand of elephants' feet, really tall, grey stems and these big huge buttress roots.  Adam: Fantastic. I am never going to forget that and I will always think of elephants when I look at a beech, a brilliant brilliant clue. Thank you. Right. So where we off to now?  Rob: We'll walk around so you can see the top of the coupe and just see the extent of it and and then we'll walk back down perhaps and have a look at this oak.   Adam: Brilliant. Well we've come to the, over the brow of the hill and along this path, there's a tiny little path for me to walk, and on either side there's a carpet of green. And I think I know what this carpet of green is. Rob, what is it tell me?  Rob: This is wild garlic.   Adam: Yeah. This is the time of year, is it?  Rob: Yep, you can see the flower heads. Ramsons it's also called, it's just about coming into flower now.  Adam: Sorry they're called what?  Rob: Ramson.  Adam: Ramson. Is that the flower itself is called ramson, or is that?  Rob: Well, just the plant.  Adam: We call it wild garlic but it's it's real name is ramson?  Rob: Well some people call it ramson too.  Adam: Right OK. And I never, I mean I have never picked and eaten anything from a forest because I am sure I will kill myself, but all of this, I mean, I've seen loads of people do that, pick wild garlic and it's, I mean there's there's acres of the stuff here.  Rob: It can it can yeah any kind of wild plant comes with the caveats that you need to know what you're doing.  Adam: Yes, which which I don't.  Rob: Yeah, absolutely. It's funny yeah, this site is quite well known for its ramsons, for its wild garlic carpets. This this is in response to something here, quite a sad thing actually. We're right next, you can probably hear the road noise there, we're right next to the main road from Monmouth into the Forest of Dean, Staunton Road there, and unfortunately, a lot of the trees along the road edge were big, big, mature ash trees. And they all had dieback and they were all dropping limbs and about to crush a car. And so, you know, we take that very seriously in terms of health and safety so the trees just along the road edge, we left the ones in the wood, just the road edge trees we had to do something about them, so they've either been reduced or felled and what that's done in this woodland where in the last 60 years, you have had very little management, like most woods, post war, very little has happened. So it becomes very high, very closed canopy, very dense. And what's happened, because of the ash felling is, you've got this pocket of light here and the ramsons have immediately responded to that. So this wasn't here last year. This carpet like this.  Adam: What so this is this is brand new?  Rob: This is brand new. It was the odd plant coming up every year, patches of it.  Adam: I'm shocked because this looks like something from the Wizard, if this was yellow, this would be we'd be in the middle of the Wizard of Oz set here, the yellow brick road. It just I mean it it's just a beautiful, winding, lush, dense path of wild garlic. It looks like it's been here forever.  Rob: And in a sense it it was. It was just waiting for the opportunity, waiting for that temporary disturbance caused by the ash felling. And so like with the coppicing, that's what we're trying to recreate essentially, is these temporary pockets of disturbance where you you break up the canopy, you get this flush of greenery and then until the trees recover it and regrow again. So you don't want this homogeneous block of woodland really. You want, you want variation, because that's the key to success for, for wildlife and biodiversity, different niches, different ages. If you look closely, you can see it's not just the garlic either. You can see wood anemone, you can see greater wood vetch, you can see little violets. So, you know, quite quite a lot of species are now taking advantage of this temporary light that the ash felling's produced.  Adam: It is a nice positive message, isn't it? Because ash dieback has been a real tragedy. But even in the midst of problems there are opportunities which nature comes back with, it's an optimistic sign.  Rob: There is and so this as I say, you know these these trees would have coppiced without us because you know when animals browse them, they they they they come back after that so all we're doing is sort of recreating these natural processes through the management of the woodland. A once in a lifetime storm might have knocked these ash out or a hurricane, something like that, could have felled the whole area and then temporary open space, the plants capitalise and then the wood comes back again, so we're just just mimicking what nature does anyway.  Adam: I'm going to take a photo of this, put it on my Twitter feed. It's fantastic. So we've just taken a little stop on this path of wild garlic. So over to the right is well, I thought it was a bird box, it's a large bird box. You tell me it's actually something very specific.   Rob: Yeah, this is a pine marten nest box cause there was there has been a big release of pine marten. Pine martens are native to this country. It's kind of like a large weasel that lives in the trees. That's a really bad way of describing it, but it's a it's a mustelid. It's a large, impressive, intelligent animal and they were sort of pressed to persecute, to extinction, with persecution in the past. But they're very important in these woods for regulating, you know, the biodiversity, they, they prey on the grey squirrel especially, and they'll regulate bird numbers like any predator does. So it's it's great to see them coming back and it's a success story actually, because a couple of years ago now there was a release programme where captive animals were put into the Forest of Dean which is just over that direction. And so we put up some boxes and monitored them and pine martens are moving back into this area now. Whether they're using the boxes or not, we're not entirely sure, but they are moving in, so it's a, it's a really good story. So we'll do whatever we can to sort of encourage them because we've we've lost a lot of this old growth woodland that we're trying to protect and so they haven't got the nest cavities, so temporarily we'll provide this habitat.  Adam: And over the other side of the little dip, there's another pathway and it looks like the bank has been cut away and it's very black so that it doesn't look quite natural. What's going on there?  Rob: Well the the track that's been put in there is exposed, an earlier industry, so that's that's a charcoal platform. See what is it about five, five metres in diameter. Sort of sort of circular and very, very thick layer of charcoal. A huge fire has been there, but that's that's lots and lots of fires, one on top of the other.  Adam: So this is this is not current, this is probably a couple of hundred years old?  Rob: I think the last burn in this woodland would have been before the Second World War.  Adam: Oh right, so not that old.  Rob: Well, I mean, if they were still burning, they would have had the odd one, but this probably dates to sort of the the height of the the periods of the the late 19th century. So this here, it's been buried and forgotten about. But it shows you as Joe was saying earlier, at one point this was a managed wood and quite a few woods in Wales if you look on the maps you'll see things like coed poeth, which probably roughly translates as sort of hot wood or or burning woods, very roughly, probably, which gives you, may may give you an indication that these woods were worked and if you came here, you would have probably seen people living in the woods with the charcoal, tinner and charcoal workers, especially in the the 19th century, would have moved in in the summer to do the charcoal production with their families.  Adam: Just living in a tent or something?  Rob: Living in on site yeah, because then you know you don't want to move products, move things twice. You know, it's it's an economic, so you bring your family in, you produce your product, and then you come out with it at the end of the season so it's very peaceful here today. You can hear the birds. It's great for wildlife, but it would have been a managed landscape and we're trying to introduce a little bit of that. Obviously not people living in the woodlands anymore, but there's space for both here within this woodland, a bit a bit of coppicing a bit of management and reserve areas.  Adam: And I mean, I I hadn't quite noticed it while we were walking, but now we're we're standing here on this green carpet, there is an overpowering smell of garlic, it's quite extraordinary. It's very fresh, you know, sometimes when you're in the kitchen and the garlic it's it's, it's not fresh, it's pungent, but this is, you know, it's mixed with the sort of cool air, it's a really lovely smell.  Rob: It's making me hungry, actually.  Adam: Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah. Well I was thinking whether I should pick some for dinner.  Rob: Chop some up. Pasta sauce. It's lovely with that.  Adam: Yeah, yeah, yeah, lovely. And and there's another one amongst this wild garlic, it's clock, what was it?  Rob: Yeah, this one here, it's the town hall clock or moschatel as it's known.  Adam: Town hall clock that's it. So just, what's the what's its proper name?  Rob: Moschatel. Well, that, that's it's another acronym, ah pseudonym really it's moschatel.  Adam: Moschatel.  Rob: Or town hall clock. I forget the Latin actually, to my shame.  Adam: Is moschatel the Welsh word for it, or it's not  Rob: No, it's not. It's a general general word, just a colloquial local term.  Adam: And why is it called the town hall clock?  Rob: Look you can see these four, the flowers have four sides to them, like an old town hall clock would.  Adam: Right, lovely. It's really quite, quite a rich path we're wandering down.  Rob: You see the the bluebells are out look just now, if you look up into the wood there you can see them. In Welsh they're called clychau'r gog, which is the cuckoo bell.  Adam: Wow. Cuckoo bell.  Rob: Because it comes out when the cuckoo comes. Apparently, the grant paid for like a fence, contractors to fence off that, this boundary here, stop the deer coming in from the Dean. To stop the wild pigs actually, pigs are a  Adam: You get wild pigs here?  Rob: They're a nuisance round here, yeah.  Adam: Wild pigs?  Rob: They call them, they're not really boar, because a boar will produce like, I don't know, maybe a litter of six, and these pigs will do 22.   Adam: Right. Blimey. And how big are they?  Rob: They look like boar.  Adam: So and boar can be quite violent, can't they, quite aggressive.  Rob: Yeah, they're sort of half breed, half pig, half boar. They're big animals, got a cute little stripey piglets, just like a boar does. But they, you know, they're exponential in their reproduction, so they're  Adam: And and they're around this wood?  Rob: They're here.  Adam: So do they cause a problem with eating or do they nibble on the new trees and stuff?  Rob: Yeah, yeah, well, they sort of rootle, I mean you want boar, because they were here originally. You want boar, like the deer, you want them in sustainable numbers, they're all sleeping now.  Adam: Do they come out at night?  Rob: They only come out at night yeah.  Adam: I'll have to return.  Rob: Yeah. I mean you'd see them if you went up to the top path up there.  Adam: We haven't done a night podcast. I think we should do some bats and.  Rob: You can do bats, if you wait, while you're waiting for the badgers to come out, you can do the bats. There's a few sites around here where you can watch them.  Adam: OK, well maybe  Rob: I'm sure there's other Trust sites where people know.  Adam: Maybe I'll come back.  Rob: One summer when I was doing my bachelor's degree, I was working in Llanelli in like a, just a café just to get some money. I was working with the local girls there, I'd been out surfing in Llangennith on the Gower the day before and I was like just telling her how the seals came in because they chased the mackerel in just beyond the surf line and I was sitting there and the water just boiled with the stench of of fish and mackerel and I looked around and two seals popped up and they were driving the mackerel into the back of the waves to hunt them. I was telling her this and she was like, what, you're telling me there's seals in the water here, in Llanelli, where? I said just in the Gower. Seals? Like seals seals, like live in water? I said there's seals there, yeah, they've always been there, we just don't value what's around us.  Adam: We don't notice it.  Rob: We don't notice because you can't see it, you don't see it, yeah.  Adam: It's interesting, isn't it, Attenborough has done a series recently on the UK and you go, you don't have to go to Africa or Latin America to see these things.  Rob: There you go. I was in West Wales last week in Aberaeron, and you can see bottlenose dolphins. Increasingly under threat there's that number of point but yeah, but they're there. You can see the seals, you can see them all around us, yeah. This is doing well.  Adam: Well, I'm going to have to leave our little trip down the Wye Valley with some rather unexpected chat about seals and bottlenose dolphins and a promise to return one dark night to meet some bats. Until next time, happy wandering.  Thank you for listening to the Woodland Trust Woodland Walks with Adam Shaw. Join us next month, when Adam will be taking another walk in the company of Woodland Trust staff, partners and volunteers. Don't forget to subscribe to the series on iTunes or wherever you're listening to us and do give us a review and a rating. And why not send us a recording of your favourite woodland walk to be included in a future podcast? Keep it to a maximum of five minutes and please tell us what makes your woodland walk special or send us an e-mail with details of your favourite walk and what makes it special to you. Send any audio files to podcast@woodlandtrust.org.uk. We look forward to hearing from you. 

Tonight, we'll read the opening section to “Flowers of the Farm” written by Arthur O. Cooke and published in 1900. Coppicing is a traditional method of woodland management which exploits the capacity of many species of trees to put out new shoots from their stump or roots if cut down. In a coppiced wood, which is called a copse, young tree stems are repeatedly cut down to near ground level, resulting in a stool. New growth emerges, and after a number of years, the coppiced tree is harvested, and the cycle begins anew. Pollarding is a similar process carried out at a higher level on the tree in order to prevent grazing animals from eating new shoots. — read by N — Support us: Listen ad-free on Patreon Get Snoozecast merch like cozy sweatshirts and accessories

Coppicing is an ancient and modern tree management system. Coppicing is known for its multi-functionality: capable of producing biomass, animal forage, firewood and much more. Today we interview Mark Krawczyk, practitioner, consultant and author of 'Coppice Agroforestry'. In this interview we tackle some of the practical challenges of coppicing, to better understand the economic potential of this technique. Mark demonstrates a variety of nuances and compromises, showing us the versatility as well as the key challenges of this technique. TABLE OF CONTENTS00:02:22 Introduction00:13:19 What are the key concepts of coppicing00:27:50 What impact on tree health? 00:39:12 What prospects for mechanising management? 00:51:44 What uses for coppiced wood? 01:17:42 What effect of coppicing on surrounding plants? 01:22:24 Productivity of coppice stands01:29:14 In relation to soil types• RESOURCEShttps://www.keylinevermont.com/http://www.coppiceagroforestry.com/https://regenerativeskills.com/mark-krawczyk-on-coppice-agroforestry-and-woodland-management-part-1/• GET IN TOUCH www.regenerativeagroforestry.org• SUPPORT US www.gumroad.com/regenagroforestry• FOLLOW US on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram• FUNDING FOR EUROPEAN PROJECTS https://explore.ecosia.org/regenerative-agriculture Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The 3rd and final coppice focussed episode is with Duncan and Sam from The Coppice Co-op. We are predominantly talking about Charcoal in this episode, its history, its uses and the ways to make it.This episode is part of a trio focusing on the technique of coppicing.  They were made possible by the Bill Hogarth Memorial Apprenticeship Trust (BHMAT).*** BHMAT are now inviting applications for our next placement and hope to interview and start the placement soon (by the end of the year/beginning of 23 hopefully). *** Episode LinksThe Coppice Co-op - http://coppicecoop.co.uk/wp/ Book - Rebecca Oaks - Making Charcoal and Biochar - https://www.hive.co.uk/Product/Rebecca-Oaks/Making-Charcoal-and-Biochar--A-comprehensive-guide/21833770Local coppice charcoal supplier - https://ncfed.org.uk/public/products/charcoal/suppliers/BHMAT (Bill Hogarth Memorial Apprenticeship Trust) - http://www.coppiceapprentice.org.uk/Hookway Retort - https://hookwayretort.co.uk/Exeter Retort - https://www.exetercharcoal.co.uk/Celebrate The Holiday's Alcohol FreeLearn why this time of year is the best and easiest time to quit drinking .Listen on: Apple Podcasts SpotifySupport the show

In this episode we hear from Kath Morgan who is the coordinator and administrator for the Bill Hogarth Memorial Apprenticeship Trust and Mike Carswell, a coppice worker and former BHMAT apprentice. At the end of August 2022 I attended the BHMAT Woodland Pioneers event in the Lake district. Woodland Pioneers is an introduction to coppicing and coppice crafts run by the Bill Hogarth Memorial Apprenticeship Trust. The annual event was fantastic week of learning and hanging out with lovely, likeminded woody folks. It was an absolute joy and I'd recommend it to all listeners!This episode is the first of 3  recorded at the woodland pioneers event, look out for the next episodes with The Coppice Coop talking about charcoal making and Lorna Singleton an oak swill basket maker. *** BHMAT are now inviting applications for our next placement and hope to interview and start the placement soon (by the end of the year/beginning of 23 hopefully). Links from episode BS086 BHMAT Website - http://www.coppiceapprentice.org.uk/index.phpWoodland Pioneers - https://vimeo.com/184839079Jack Hargreaves talks about coppicing -  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egVfxSkjWaETree Station - http://treestation.co.uk/Coppice conversations - https://soundcloud.com/user-787605853Coppice Association North West - https://coppicenorthwest.org.uk/wp/National Coppice Federation - https://ncfed.org.uk/Celebrate The Holiday's Alcohol FreeLearn why this time of year is the best and easiest time to quit drinking .Listen on: Apple Podcasts SpotifySupport the show

Aproveitando a necessidade de adensamento das linhas de árvore da @florestaria para explicar algumas lógicas de poda para diferentes tipo de árvores de serviço e produção. Este clip faz parte da consultoria feita na @florestaria Tarumim . Um trabalho com base na #tomadadedecisãoholística e na #escaladepermanênciadalinhachave para melhorar a gestão, a qualidade de vida e a produtividade do empreendimento dessa equipe maravilhosa! #agriculturafamiliar #agroecologia #agrofloresta #poda Para apoiar a produção do Podcast Impacto Positivo visite: https://apoia.se/impactopositivo  Você também pode apoiar via PIX podcastimpactopositivo@gmail.com

ACT's Wildlife Warden Scheme is run by the Action on Climate in Teignbridge (www.actionclimateteignbridge.org) Ecology Group. The idea is to have Wildlife Wardens in every Teignbridge Parish who can help their local nature in a wide variety of ways - through promoting wildlife gardening, recording local wildlife, improving local habitats, working with clubs and schools, keeping an eye on planning applications and development and more! ACT's Wildlife Warden Scheme would not be possible without the generous assistance of: Devon Environment Foundation; Teign Energy Communities' Community Fund; Cllr Jackie Hook's DCC Locality Fund; Dartmoor National Park Authority; the Nineveh Trust; anonymous donors. Many thanks to all. Devon Wildlife Warden Podcast – Wildlife Warden News and Updates (wordpress.com) Links referenced in episode: wwwactionclimateteignbridge.org ACT Wildlife Wardens – Information for ACT Wildlife Wardens (actionclimateteignbridge.org) ‘Wilder Communities'– working together for wildlife Tickets, Tue 1 Feb 2022 at 19:00 | Eventbrite Plantlife :: Spring into action with Plantlife This podcast was written, presented and produced by Emily Marbaix. Music by Poddington Bear --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/emily-marbaix/message

In honor of our wintertime in our neck of the woods, we are focusing on different themes of making the most of long winter downtime in the Northern parts of the world. To start things off, we begin this series with introducing the concept of Slöjd (or Sloyd) which is a Swedish word that for many hundreds of years has referred to being self sufficient through the act of craft. Simple hand tools, simple techniques to build anything. Hear some interviews with several folks of the Scandinavian Slöjd tradition of woodworking and beyond to American, English & Japanese traditions as well."Slöjd is part of the self-sufficient household, how people survived before industrialization. Slöjd is the work method farmers used when they made tools for house building, farming and fishing, and objects for their household needs. For thousands of years, the knowledge of the material has deepened, and the use of the tools has evolved along with the understanding of how function, composition and form combine to make objects strong and useful. The word slöjd derives from the word stem slög, which dates to the 9th century. Slög means ingenious, clever and artful. It reflects the farmers' struggle for survival and how it made them skilled in using the natural materials surrounding the farm: wood, flax, hide, fur, horn and me- tal. I have picked up a dialect expression from my home county, Västerbotten, that has become a personal motto. We say Int' oslög, “not uncrafty,” about a person who is handy and practical. Slöjd in its pure self-sufficient use is characterized by an individual using simple tools with great skill, a deep knowledge of raw materials, and the ability to solve functional problems. The resulting objects are intended for the maker's personal use." - Jögge SundquistLearn more about the inspiring folks from this episode, watch the videos and read the show notes on this episode here >Hear about green woodworking for carving spoons, turning bowls and more from voices like Jögge Sundquist, Jarrod Dahl, Ben Law, Barn the Spoon, Robin Wood, Sylva Spoon & more…Enjoy and happy woodworking!- - -Disclaimer: This is another episode exploring different themes in Permaculture and related fields with audio clips, interviews & anything else we can find. All audio clips are credited and linked on our website. We seek to share content & information which is becoming increasingly hard to find, censored and/or deemed controversial. Opinions expressed by content creators, guests & interviews on Permaculture Freedom podcast do not necessarily reflect the views of Land by Hand. No human holds the whole truth and listening to many different perspectives helps to shape a critical informed opinion. Always do your own unbiased research before drawing conclusions or spreading others' ideas as the truth.  "It is the mark of an educated mind to entertain a thought without accepting it." - Aristotle - - - If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and consider the following: Share it with someone else in your life  Leave a review or rating for the show Submit feedback, episode topic/guest ideas or a question at landbyhand.org/pfp Thanks for listening and your support! Land by Hand Permaculture education & media to live a natural, resilient lifestyle.-Learn more, watch the videos, and read the show notes on this episode here >

There's anger after around 150 trees along a footpath near Maidstone were cut down. Developer Croudace Homes owns the land and put up a notice saying it was carrying out the coppicing work. Some say it's what should be done to maintain the woodland and encourage fresh tree growth, but others claim it's damaged existing wildlife. Also in today's podcast, a so-called 'surge hub' is being set up at a Kent hospital in case there's an increase in the number of people needing treatment for the Omicron variant of coronavirus. It'll be at the William Harvey in Ashford and have room for around 100 patients. We've also been speaking to a University of Kent professor who says it's a risk not to impose fresh Covid restrictions before New Year as cases remain high. A woman who threatened to stab a man following a row on a public Facebook page has been jailed. A review has been carried out into the explosives on board a ship which sank off the coast of Sheerness in 1944. And, another Kent's pantomime has had to be cancelled after members of the casts tested positive for coronavirus.

Part 2: We chat with mark Krawczyk, the author of the forthcoming book "Coppice Agroforestry: Tending Trees for Product, Profit, and Woodland Ecology", which I've been waiting for the past half decade, but is slated for early 2022.  We discuss the role of coppicing in the modern world, tending to landscapes within the scope of what their capacity is, and much more! Check out Mark's work at: http://www.coppiceagroforestry.com/ https://www.keylinevermont.com/ http://www.rivenwoodcrafts.com/     Support this podcast by becoming a Patron at: https://www.patreon.com/PoorProlesAlmanac

We chat with mark Krawczyk, the author of the forthcoming book "Coppice Agroforestry: Tending Trees for Product, Profit, and Woodland Ecology", which I've been waiting for the past half decade, but is slated for early 2022.  We discuss the role of coppicing in the modern world, tending to landscapes within the scope of what their capacity is, and much more! Check out Mark's work at: http://www.coppiceagroforestry.com/ https://www.keylinevermont.com/ http://www.rivenwoodcrafts.com/     Support this podcast by becoming a Patron at: https://www.patreon.com/PoorProlesAlmanac

In this episode, we chat extensively about the history of coppicing, the benefits of coppicing, and the application of coppicing-- as well as pollarding! Sources: Brett McLeod, "The Woodland Homestead: How to Make Your Land More Productive and Live More Self-Sufficiently in the Woods" William Bryant Logan, "Sprout Lands: Tending the Endless Gift of Trees" Rebecca Oaks, "Coppicing & Coppice Crafts: A Comprehensive Guide" Raymond Tabor, "A Guide to Coppicing"

The weekly podcast that talks all things food growing with those doing amazing things from across the UK and the world. Every week we deliver you a podcast that interviews a fantastic food grower that is doing things differently, inspirationally or that has an awesome story to tell. In this episode we are delighted to have a good friend of ours on Danny from Lawsons Market Garden. We talk about: How it all began and skills from retail that led to market gardening What permaculture is and how it has shaped Lawsons Market Garden How working with nature has benefits both personally and commercially Perennial crops and establishing a working veg box scheme Building with recycled materials What permaculture means to Danny How to walk the line between permaculture and producing enough veg each week Willow Coppicing and the powers of the willow tree Chicken Composting Plus the all important quick-fire questions of course…. Will Danny be #teambeer or #teamcoffee ??? This is a podcast that will hopefully inspire and inform you whatever experience you have… from aspiring grower, to casual allotmenteer, right through to fully fledged market gardener. We will be talking everything from no-dig to permaculture, mushrooms to marketing. We are your hosts Chris from Fanfield Farm and Jack from Jacks Patch and we will be bringing you an inspirational interview, some tips and tricks from our own farms as well as the fun feature of quick fire questions that we ask every guest…. Obviously including whether they prefer an evening farm beer or morning farm coffee!! Show Notes: https://lawsonsmarketgarden.com/ https://www.instagram.com/lawsonsmarketgarden/ https://www.facebook.com/lawsonsmarketgarden/ Miraculous Abundance Book - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Miraculous-Abundance-Quarter-French-Farmers/dp/1603586423 Willow Inspiration - Rene Antonelli - Green Back Yard (Peterborough) For all things Food Grower podcast; including upcoming blog posts, additional content, guest opportunities and food grower merch, head over to our website at https://www.foodgrower.co.uk And please do pass on to anyone in your life who grows food either for fun or funds… You can listen to this podcast completely free, anywhere you normally get your podcasts from. And for more Food Grower Content head to our instagram account https://www.instagram.com/foodgroweracademy to interact with us and get updates each week on episodes, additional content, or just to have a chat. Don't forget to hit the follow button on instagram, and the subscribe button on your podcast app. We hope you enjoy the podcast!

Where is the sweet spot that gardening meets the natural world…so that gardening is ecological? Our guest today explains that ecological gardening is all about balance. Matt Rees-Warren says, “Your garden is a pocket of wild; it will never be purely wild, because it's an interaction between ourselves and nature. But it can be much more regenerative.” Rees-Warren is a professional gardener and garden designer who's passionate about the difference that individual gardeners can make to strengthen biodiversity and lessen environmental degradation. He says gardening is one way individuals can make a tangible difference to the environment. Don't wait for governments to act, he says. Start making changes now, in your own garden. Rees-Warren is the author of The Ecological Gardener: How to Create Beauty and Biodiversity From the Soil Up. Ecological Gardening “If we design our gardens to be regenerative, the result will be functional, beautiful spaces full of life and vigour, robust enough to face the challenges of the future and elegant enough to beguile all those who walk among them,” says Rees-Warren. But ecological gardening is more than a philosophy. There are many practical things we can do in the garden. Here are some of the ideas discussed: Coppicing. Talking about renewable materials for the garden, Rees-Warren explains the process of coppicing, where trees are repeatedly cut back to the ground to give a harvest of sticks that can be used in the garden. Scythe. He describes this as “the most immersive” of tools. “It's the only tool for wildflower meadows,” he says. Hedgrows. Rees-Warren says hedgerows can also be food reservoirs, using plants such as blackberry, sloe berry, hops, raspberry, and hazelnuts. On the mention of sloe gin, he adds that sometimes these are called, “alcoholic hedges.” Pleachers. “Laying a hedgerow” and the technique of using “pleachers” is one way to create attractive hedgerows that are like a living fence. Young trees are cut leaving just a thread of bark connecting them to the stem, and then folded down horizontally. “It looks fabulous,” says Rees-Warren.

Yvette Faris talks about why coppicing is so important.

Today I'm talking with Alice and Gavin Munro from Full Grown about their exceptional work growing complete chairs from trees. So the normal procedure is to wait 50 years for a tree to grow, chop it down and begin cutting it into smaller and smaller parts. At some point the parts are small enough and you can now join them back together with glue to make a chair. Depending on the competency of the joinery and strength of the glue, your chair might last 50-100 years? Alice and Gavin Munro have a different idea. Grow one tree that you train into the right shape to be a complete chair. Grafting the branches together to make solid joins that will last forever! "Taking a radical stance on the way we produce our objects, Alice & Gavin Munro are at the cutting edge of an emerging art form, an art form that highlights an interesting way to be closer to art and nature and to create symbiotic abundance for both.Challenging the way we create products as well as how we see the items with which we surround ourselves, the Grown Furniture has an immediate tactile, visceral and organic appeal."Full Grown Building Sustainability LinksAsh DiebackFerdinand Ludwig - Buildings made from treesFerdinand Ludwig - VideoBiophilia is an innate affinity of life or living systems. The term was first used by Erich Fromm to describe a psychological orientation of being attracted to all that is alive and vital.Horatio's GardensDavid Nash (Artist)Kew GardensCradle to CradleDr Chris Cattle ( Grown Stools)Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/buildingsustainability)

In this episode we have the chance to interview the manager of Wakelyns Farm, amongst the oldest agroforestry systems in Europe. David gives us a great insight into what a fully running agroforestry system looks like. We get into understanding the decisions involved when managing mature trees, what tradeoffs arise with time, and how to balance their needs with the crops grown in the alleys. David also explains how he is shifting the strategy of the farm from a research project to a demonstration site with more diverse revenue streams, bringing many new people and productions on site in the process. • TABLE OF CONTENTS00:02:44 Introduction of Wakelyns Farm00:11:40 Intercropping systems description 00:22:17 Alternative intercrops: vegetables and animals 00:28:13 Coppicing vs pollarding systems 00:33:28 Mechanisation 00:36:13 Ecosystem benefits 00:42:23 Diversifying the business 00:51:59 Mistakes 00:58:27 Economic viability • RESOURCEShttp://www.wakelyns.co.ukhttps://www.facebook.com/wakelynshttps://www.instagram.com/wakelyns/• GET IN TOUCH www.regenerativeagroforestry.org• SUPPORT US www.gumroad.com/regenagroforestry• FOLLOW US on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

#018. We talk about a variety of fun topics in this episode including yurt building (and touch on some other traditional/natural building techniques), managing a coppiced hardwood forest, English green woodworking, and traditional lime wash and lime production in the UK. Alex and his wife run Little Foot Yurts which produces handmade yurts from coppice wood they've harvested themselves. Additionally, they also run an event catering business renting out the yurts they've made, and teach workshops on yurt building.Links to any resources mentioned in the episode can be found at:folkcraftrevival.com/18

Episode Notes "Using Dimensional Analysis to Investigate Feasability of Woodgas CPT + Coppice Silvopasture Managment to Power Our Cities" by Silas Bennet 2017 Shout out to Cody Harrison and the Corona, LLC. Environmental co-op Manna Short Story (Anarcho Space Communism Futurism): https://marshallbrain.com/manna1.htm Co-op start-up being organized by founder of this LLC: https://corona-enterprises.com/about-us Ecosystem Restoration Camps 501c3: https://ecosystemrestorationcamps.org/our-vision/ Ecolonomic Action Team: https://www.eatcommunity.com/ Solid State Isothermal Air Compression: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trompe Mark Shepard's "New Forest Farm" A great example of a profitable Silvopasture: https://newforestfarm.us/ Mark Shepard's book "Restoration Agriculture": https://www.amazon.com/Restoration-Agriculture-Mark-Shepard/dp/1601730357 What is a "Silvopasture": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silvopasture What is "Coppicing": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coppicing What is "Wood Gasification": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wood_gas_generator Supercritical Fluid Gasification: https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/engineering/supercritical-water-gasification What is a "Supercritical Fluid": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supercritical_fluid What is a "B Corp": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benefit_corporation What is "CZTS Solar Cells": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CZTS What is "Biogas Digestion": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anaerobic_digestion Find out more at http://biocosm.xyz

In which a forgotten medieval art of tree-harvesting is revived by the sustainability movement, and Ken blames the coming environmental catastrophe on "sugar energy." Certificate #22560.

Furniture designer Sebastian Cox talks about his ambitious new manifesto, Modern life from Wilder Land, that sets out a more sustainable future for food production in this country. Among other things we chat about how we need to radically shift the way we use land, reducing our reliance on meat, how our woodlands need to be more effectively managed, and why design is a political act. Oh and we also discuss his issues with sheep and going to the gym. Not only that but we also unpick his relationship with timber, the importance of coppicing to his practice and making a desk for a certain Sir Terence Conran. It’s fascinating stuff (but then I would say that I suppose).

The title says it all really!

Learn more at permaculturevoices.com/79 Support the show at permaculturevoices.com/support THIS EPISODE IS A REPLAY OF PREVIOUS PUBLISHED EPISODE. In Woody Agriculture, crops would be planted only once in a lifetime. The use of woody perennials for agricultural staple commodities production would result in little or no use of tillage, as well as the presence of a permanent cover during both the growing and the dormant seasons. Not only would this lead to a vastly lower rate of soil loss and less runoff into water supplies and aquatic environments, but there would be a reduced need for the fossil fuels consumed in plowing and tilling. In addition, use of pesticides needed for the establishment of annual plants could be sharply reduced. A further important benefit would be the reduction of soil compaction, since far fewer trips through the fields with heavy equipment would be required. Key Takeaways: Breeding: You cannot work with more than two traits at the same time. The most important trait is to have a population that actually survives. When you sell products off of your farm (like nuts) you are exporting a lot of minerals. It is important to remineralize your soil. You can use sheep and chickens in hazelnut systems to remineralize and fertilize the soil. Hickory and Pecan work well with hazelnuts. Chestnuts don't do as well given different soil pH requirements. Find the old timers growing tree species that you want to grow in your area. They may have long tested genetics suited for your area. Hazels are wind pollinated, so you don't' need immediate close proximity for insect pollination. Coppicing to the ground every 10 years can help to rejuvenate the plants. Learn more at permaculturevoices.com/79 Support the show at permaculturevoices.com/support THIS EPISODE IS A REPLAY OF PREVIOUS PUBLISHED EPISODE.

In Woody Agriculture, crops would be planted only once in a lifetime. The use of woody perennials for agricultural staple commodities production would result in little or no use of tillage, as well as the presence of a permanent cover during both the growing and the dormant seasons. Not only would this lead to a vastly lower rate of soil loss and less runoff into water supplies and aquatic environments, but there would be a reduced need for the fossil fuels consumed in plowing and tilling. In addition, use of pesticides needed for the establishment of annual plants could be sharply reduced. A further important benefit would be the reduction of soil compaction, since far fewer trips through the fields with heavy equipment would be required. Key Takeaways: Breeding: You cannot work with more than two traits at the same time. The most important trait is to have a population that actually survives. When you sell products off of your farm (like nuts) you are exporting a lot of minerals. It is important to remineralize your soil. You can use sheep and chickens in hazelnut systems to remineralize and fertilize the soil. Hickory and Pecan work well with hazelnuts. Chestnuts don't do as well given different soil pH requirements. Find the old timers growing tree species that you want to grow in your area. They may have long tested genetics suited for your area. Hazels are wind pollinated, so you don't' need immediate close proximity for insect pollination. Coppicing to the ground every 10 years can help to rejuvenate the plants. permaculturevoices.com/79

Author of Edible Forest Gardens- Volumes 1 and 2, Dave Jacke is a longtime permaculture teacher and designer.  In this interview, he talks about the history of forest gardening, its many benefits, and how gardening like a forest can enrich your life.

Transcript -- How ecosystems need careful understanding if we are to sustain them for the future whilst using them to our economic advantage

How ecosystems need careful understanding if we are to sustain them for the future whilst using them to our economic advantage

Transcript -- How ecosystems need careful understanding if we are to sustain them for the future whilst using them to our economic advantage

How ecosystems need careful understanding if we are to sustain them for the future whilst using them to our economic advantage