Help for beginners

[TrishaA]

We are total novices & we need lots of info on coppicing. We have a 2½ acre field which we would like to start planting but we have no idea which are the best trees to buy. We are hoping it will provide us with enough wood to heat our home. I guess they would need to be something reasonably fast growing and that burns reasonably hot, but I don’t know if mixing different species would be better. As you can see we really are beginning from scratch. We have 3 wood burning stoves in the house to provide wood for. We would like to know which trees are the best to plant given our circumstances, how far apart should we space them and how soon can the coppicing begin? I have looked on woodland/coppicing websites but I have always found that forums offer very good advice – hence joining this one.

[tracy]

Hi TrishaA

yes, this is a great place to start!

Take a look at all our websites (listed in the resources section of this site) and www.coppice.co.uk for a start

As to which trees to plant, a good place to start is to look at what is growing naturally in the area. The vegetation classification might help

a guide to what that is:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_National_Vegetation_Classification

Other, much wiser, folk than me will post on this, but you will want to know things like:

What soil type you have (ph, sandy loam, etc)

Drainage - is it dry or waterlogged

Are there any other little woodlands in the area where you could see what is growing naturally?

Hope this helps as a start

T

[TrishaA]

We are in the centre of France near to the Tronçais Forest http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forest_of_Tron%C3%A7ais. The soil, I believe, has quite a bit of clay in it and can get very wet and waterlogged in winter but dry out a lot in the summer months when the temperatures are normally higher than the UK. Our front garden has a few oaks, pine, lime, walnut, elder and lots of horrible acacia which we hate as it sprouts everywhere when it is cut back. We are hoping to possibly start coppicing in 5 years time so we really want something that will grow fast but not be so invasive as the acacia.