Coppiced Bean Poles

With the lock down it's good to have some materials that are grown on site. 

A few weeks ago I harvested my bean poles and pea sticks from a stand of hazel we have in the bottom of the garden.



I last took a harvest from this stand when we first moved here 8 years ago. I have picked a few bits out of it over the years - especially when the kids want a bow and arrow making.

It's great to get this kind of harvest out of our trees. Certainly saves having to buy an bamboo.

I love the process of cutting it down, and separating it up into pea sticks and bean poles.

I'm planning on growing a lot of beans and climbing peas this year so I hope I've harvested enough to create all the wigwams I'll need and pea sticks for the dwarf peas to scramble up. I've used my saw buck (that has seen better days) to rest them in and keep them off the ground until they're needed.