Short Rotation Willow Coppice Year 10

Last weekend I got my next section of willow cut. That makes for 4 years in a row I've cut a section. 

This time I didn't log it up straight away, instead I've kept it in long lengths. That way I have other options of what I can do with it. It's a great resource that I can use for building temporary structures around the smallholding, or the children can use it for building dens. 

Short Rotation Willow Coppice - Year 8 & 9

So I started my adventures with willow in 2014. The idea was to start to produce a bit of our own firewood in a sustainable way. 

I did the first proper cut of it last year (2022) and had some good results. This year I decided to film it all and show the work involved. 

It didn't take long to chop it down and log it, then I got the children to help to move it the day afterwards. A nice job for a warm and dry winters day. 

I'd say we got a builders bag full of wood, maybe a bit more. This was from about 30 trees spaced at 1m apart. 

I'm looking forward to managing this in the coming years, it seems like an incredible renewable resource. Hopefully it'll produce even more as time goes on and the roots get established. 

Watch the video and let me know what you think - do you think it's worth it?

Do you grow and manage any wood for firewood with coppicing or pollarding?

Willow - Short Rotation Coppice - First Cuts

 Cutting it a bit fine with the season but I've just finished coppicing my hybrid willow that I planted about 7 years ago.

You don't get a huge harvest but I'm pleased with what I've got from it. 

The battery chainsaw has been perfect for this. 

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.

Chestnut Fencing

I wrote this post before the lock down and went to get the posts before it as well! 

I've been planning on doing some fencing for a while now.

The area I want to tackle is around the polytunnel. I've been warned that rabbits do like to get through the plastic and so it's best to fence around it.

A Tour Of The Coppice

The garden and the sheep (and the children) take up most of my time around here, but I have got a few other areas growing on quietly in the background. 

The coppice is one of those, it's quiet happy being neglected  but it's looking better every year. I did make some extra plantings this year and I plan to plant even more this next winter/spring - I'll clear an area of grass by leaving plastic on it and then plant it up with self seeding annuals or perennial herbs and bushes. 

Here's a little walk around of what it's looking like at the moment.

Let me know what you think!

What would you plant in there?

Willow Trees Update

Dawn over at Doing It For Ourselves In Wales has just done a post on the woodlands that she's planting so it spurred me on to go and take some pictures of my coppice areas and how they're doing.

The tallest from 2014 - about 6ft high

 The hybrid willow I planted for fuel last year (March 2014) is finally coming into it's own. It hardly made an appearance last year but now it's coming on strong. One is as tall as me and the others are around three foot tall. I'm pleased as I thought I might have to replant these areas as they grew so poorly last year, I guess they were just getting their roots established ready to battle the weeds this year!

The rest of this batch are about 3ft high but there are lots in there so I'm quite pleased.

 My willow I planted for basket weaving is coming up quite well but looking at it I know I should have spent a little more money on the weed mating. It was falling apart as I was putting it down so I'm not sure what I was expecting. there are some good strong plants in there though so I'm still pleased. The rabbits seem to have left them alone as well which is always a bonus!

The hybrid willow I planted this year isn't doing so well and I have only myself to blame. I made a critical error with it. I pegged the matting down, planted the willows, then just left it for a month or so. I think what happened was the wind would blow the matting up and down (this was before I added the wood chip) and it knocked the budds off the cuttings. A simple mistake that's cost me a lot of time to try to get these growing well again next year. 

 It's not a total loss though as there are still plenty of them growing and looking okay but no the numbers that should be there. I'll have to keep my eye on them a little better in future and put the wood chip down straight away.

The old willow we pollarded is coming back strong now, with loads of new growth, ideal if I had goats! I'll let this grow for a few years then cut it for firewood again.

 The bottom little coppice area (started in 2012) is looking a little more established. The trees hold their own now and there is a good mix in there, the Rowans (for berries) at the back are about 10ft high and the cherries (not for coppicing just for scion wood) are looking healthy. 

 Even the purple filbert I planted has got some nuts on it - what's the betting Mr Squirrel has them before I do?

The barberries I planted this year are doing well even though I haven't water them since I put them in! 

How are any trees you planted looking this year? Have you had many losses or made many mistakes like I have?

Hybrid Willow Update - Year One

Sol asked how my hybrid willow that I planted back in the spring last year was doing. I hope I'm not one of the bloggers who only posts how wonderful everything I do is, and to prove it here's some willow that hasn't really grown! 

Not quite ready for the fire!

 These pictures were taken in July, but believe me when I say that they haven't put on any growth since I took these photos. 

Most have seemed to survive but I guess I should have done a bit more when I read that willow didn't like competition. The majority are at about 8 inches high, not the 8ft that I've read about, it really doesn't like competition from grass and I did nothing to stop it so it's my own fault. Also I think I was a little late in planting them so I doubt that's helped as well.

There's two hundred trees in this picture - see them? No? Don't worry I don't either until I trip on one!

With coppicing in this way you're meant to cut them down at the end of the first year, but as they're barely established I'm going to leave it an extra year before I cut them back. That does mean that it will be six years until I get any firewood from these little plots, but I'm not planning on going anywhere so I can wait!

I'm going to plant up another plot this year, although I might plant through plastic or mulch, and I'm planning on putting in a row of a variety of willow for basket making as well, I've no plans to make any baskets yet but if I ever do then the willow will be there waiting for me! 

Anyone have much luck with willow last year? Or any other sort of coppicing?

Hybrid Willow Coppice - Two Plots Planted

With my talk of planting a hybrid willow coppice some family (smallholder) friends said that they'd started to plant one last year and would I like some cuttings. They planted around 700 cuttings and as you have to cut them back after the first year they had plenty of wood spare.

 They gave me around 200 cuttings which is plenty for me to be going on with. It's two different varieties Q83 and Chinese.

 This is enough for two out of my five plots that I'll be growing on a short rotation coppice (SRC). So last Saturday I marked the two plots out with 1 metre spacings so all the cuttings would be going in at 1m x 1m square (which is what I've read is recommmended on some websites).

 I put the cuttings in by making a hole with a metal bar (an old muck rake tine) then pushing them into the wet ground leaving about 2 inches showing. I plan to mulch round it all quite soon with wood chip, as I'm meant ot have a few loads coming my way, this should stop it having to complete with the grass and keep other weeds down.

My little helper did get a bit distracted towards to end of the job though!

Hopefully I should see some growth in the next month or so. I've got to get the airgun charged up to make sure I keep the rabbits numbers down, as apparently they don't react well to being chewed by the white tailed little blighters (mind you what tree does!).

Anyone else planting trees for firewood at the moment?

Hybrid Willow For Logs?

The last couple of years I've been planting a few trees in the corner of our "large" 2 acre field with the view to making this into a little coppice for firewood and somewhere for the kids to make dens when they're older.

In this little corner there is about 30 native trees, cherry, hazel, sweet chestnut, cherry, etc. But in my fencing frenzy of the last month or so (I'm going to draw up a plan so everyone will know what area I'm on about when I talk about it) I've sectioned off a long strip about 10m wide and 80m long (approx) down the one field to make this coppice area bigger, now needing hundreds of trees.

The trouble is what to plant.

I want to be able to coppice this on a short rotation if possible and divide it up into sections that will be coppiced each year.

My Potential plan for the coppice area (a very rough plan)

I've been reading about hybrid willow and it seems to be the fastest growing tree about that coppices well and is relatively good for firewood and charcoal making. The beauty of growing it like that is the logs only ever reach about 4" in diameter so there is no splitting required.

What I want to know is has anyone else had any experience of growing hybrid willow for logs and what does it burn like on a high efficiency wood stove? Or should I go for slower growing native trees like sweet chestnut and hazel?

Planting A Little Coppice

I'm not sure what everyone else got up to on Friday night, but I planted 10 sweet chestnut trees.


A Bucket of Sin - I should have planted these weeks ago.

I've decided that the corner of 2 acre field is going to become a little coppice for firewood. For the next few years we've got plenty of firewood coming in, from taking a few trees down to taking off some of the large overhanging limbs from the old oaks, but I need to plan for what wood we've got after that. That's why a few weeks ago I brought 10 sweet chestnut trees on line with the aim of starting a little coppice.


It might not look much but it's a start

Not only will this provide me with some firewood but it will be great for wildlife and somewhere fun for the kids to play. It's late to be planting trees and I know I should have done it earlier but we've been so busy I haven't had time. The plan is to find some young hazel and ash saplings to add to this little coppice so there will be trees growing at different rates and sizes.


The Budds are just ready to break

I also planted two rowan trees in the same area today, but they wont be for firewood - more for their berries! The only trouble is this is another area I've got to fence off - I'll be sick of that post basher by the end of the year!
Any other ideas for fast growing firewood that coppices well?