I ordered fifty root stock hazelnut bushes/trees from Mark Shepard about two months ago. I cannot remember where I found his link, but I think I stumbled upon the blog first. I came up with the idea to plant a hedge of hazelnuts around the outside of the labyrinth. I emailed Mark and he agreed that hedging is a great way to grow hazels and the project was on. My hazel sticks came this past Friday and I started getting them in the ground on Saturday. Most were planted Sunday through Tuesday. We have much quartz in our yard and it was not an easy task. I mulched them all yesterday.

It took 43 of them, planted four feet apart, to get around the labyrinth. The extra seven were planted in spare nursery pots as back-up in case some don’t make it. Any of the potted ones I don’t need I plan to give away to friends.

The big surprise was how quickly they they came to life. They came as sticks with varying degrees of root attached. I planted them in compost to give them a good head start and they responded wonderfully. Many started leafing out within 24 to 48 hours after they went into the ground.

They supposedly flower in early Spring, and though they are wind pollinated, Gunther Hauk says that bees use them to forage…win, win. Speaking of sticks. We also have Paw Paws. We started with one a couple of years ago and learned last year that a grove works best and so we bought four more. They are also doing well this Spring. All are well leafed out and are planted back in the trees where they do best.

We joke about farming quartz on this property because we have only dug 2 holes that didn’t have some obnoxious rocks in all the digging we’ve done here.

Today, Chuck pulled out the mother of all of them.  (We hope there won’t be another one that size.)

I set it by the bench in the labyrinth to hold a cup or glass in case someone needs a place to rest such a thing when they have reached the center.