About a month ago I coppiced my Tamarix. Are you familiar with that term?  If not, it’s the act of holding your breath and cutting back the old wood, HARD- pretty near to the ground and then praying and hoping for all this fresh new growth to pop up. You can coppice trees or shrubs, but if you do it to a perennial its just called “cutting it back”. Hey, I don’t make the rules, just break them.

Over here I coppiced the Tamarix in an effort to change its shape and get a lot more blooms. So, I’m sacrificing some height to get more density, for sure.  It had been just one length of “blah” and now I’m certain that it’s going to bust out in all sorts of directions, because I can finally see it happening! It’s about time; I’ve checked it three times a day for a whole month, seriously.

There’s a general lack of jokes about coppicing—so come and see me in the forum. I’ll tell you what else you can coppice. 

And I, as always, recommend you practice coppicing on a shrub in your neighbor’s yard … at night … when the moon isn’t too bright and you’re dressed like a ninja.

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1. Holding the Line
2. KMA Landscaping Basics #404 & a PSA
3. A Completely Biased Book Review