Here’s a word that should be on every gardeners tongue, but it feels antiquated and stodgy. Coppice. It means cutting back woody plants really hard. We’ve been planting what might be the largest coppice border around.

Epic Coppice Border

The talented fellas at Moore Farms and me, for 3 months, have been planning. Now we are all tractors, semis of compost, plants and spools of irrigation hose getting it in.

This coppice border needs a name. The plants in it are all selected for their winter stem color or textures.

No perennials, it is a border of woody shrubs and trees that will be cut back every year. Well, some will be cut back every two or three years. We have a list, a maintenance plan defining what gets cut when.

Oh, I’m wrong. There are a few perennials. Some bulbs and some dog fennel.

What looks great in winter?

Lots of things swell with hope, color, and buds this time of year. Lots of things have beauty in the way they freeze, drain their nutrients or curl with cold.

Heres is a short list:

Salix sp.
Vaccinium
Sassafras
Acer rubrum
Catalpa
Firmiana
Coral Bark Maple
Campsis
Lespedeza

You know, there are other reasons to coppice! Lots of people, like it or not, cut crepe myrltes very hard or coppice them to get more and bigger summer flowers. You can treat any plant that flowers on new wood this way to exaggerate its summer traits!