Sciatic nerve problems often require exercise, so last week, I tried working in the garden a bit. Carefully, and slowly. And one of the works that I did was planting new hazelnuts in the coppice.

© Charly, all rights reserved. Click for full size.

Jays, nutcrackers, and squirrels bury hazelnuts and acorns all over my garden. They do not manage to eat all they bury, so in the following spring a lot of them sprout in random places all ovah. When I am mowing the lawn and spot the tiny trees, I go around them and mark them with a willow rod or some other visible way to leave them be for the rest of the growing season. When planting the veggies, I also often find germinating nuts in the ground, which I carefully relocate to a temporary place for their first summer.

And in the fall, I dig them all out and plant them in the coppice. Hazel is especially valuable in there; it grows reasonably fast, it is good firewood, and the voles leave it alone, for whatever reason.

© Charly, all rights reserved. Click for full size.

And this year I had a lot of tiny hazels around the bird feeder, the apple tree, and the apple tree stump. Overall, I found nearly twenty seedlings in my garden during the summer. I hope they fare well and start growing asap, although even under ideal conditions, it will take five to six years before I get any use out of them.

I gained one red-leaved hazel this way, too. It is in the coppice now for a few years and finally starts to grow fast.