Willow Coppice For Firewood - 3rd Section Cut

A few weeks ago I managed to carve out enough time to tackle my little section of willow coppice. 

This is the third cut now and I'm really enjoying seeing what we get from it and the regrowth in its different stages. 

This is the wood from one average sized tree. Most only had one or two stems though as I've didn't do the cut it down at year one, it just hadn't put on enough growth by then. 

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. 

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?

Fuel Willow Planted And Planning A New Garden

Yesterday I managed to finish planting my willow cuttings that I'm growing for fuel. 

I planted most of them through weed matting but run out on the last row. So instead I mulched them with some of my woodchip I've got stored up. It will be interesting to see which ones do best as they're growing next to each other. I should imagine the wood chip is better in the long run as it will add something to the soil as well as preventing the grass from growing. Also its going to  leave nothing behind when I'm finished with it - something I'm very aware of when using plastic based weed suppressant.  

This week I'm planning on ploughing another nursery/garden in the field nearest to the house (I know I'm mental) and I keep thinking about how I'm going to keep the weeds away without using sprays. Even getting rid of the grass is going to be difficult. 
Any advice for starting a plot from scratch? I've done it once and hopefully it'll be easier this time with what I've learnt already.

Making Pegs And Planting Willow

I didn't do many homestead jobs over the weekend as I was working Saturday and there was plenty of rain on Sunday. We did manage to get some of my willow cuttings planted in the coppice. 

Axe, saw and froe - I idn't need to use the froe in the end as the wood split easy.

 we planted them through weed matting this time so I needed to peg it down. I guess I could have bought some off the internet but I decided it wouldn't take long to make some out of a few ash branches, so armed with my axe and a folding saw I could make about 4 pegs in five minutes with not too many swings of the axe. Anyone else make their own pegs?

Homemade peg to hold the fabric down

 The girls then came over to help plant some willows, it was really nice to have the four of us doing something together, we only managed to plant the basket willow (5 cuttings of 5 varieties each) as the rain came down pretty hard, but it's a start on this new area of the coppice.

Me and my helpers

Youngest getting muddy hands

Basket willow all in

For me doing things like this as a family is priceless.

Anyone else like to make their own pegs and things to save spending a few pennies? What other things do you knock up quick to save money and be more self reliant?
Also is there anything else I can buy in large sheets that's a little more eco friendly that the black horrible weed matting, it's better than using a spray to kill the grass but I've still got to dispose of it at some point. I did think about lots of cardboard again but it's so hard to hold down.

Grow Your Own Materials - Willow

When we talk about becoming self sufficient we normally talk about food, and rightly so as it's one of the most important things. The conversation then often moves on to heat and power, firewood , solar energy, wind power, ect. 

But what other materials would we need to grow to be self sufficient? I've been thinking about this and one thing that would be important to me would be the ability to grow some of the materials I  use. 

Now I'm never going to be able to use an oak tree that I've planted unless I live to be over a hundred years old (so those are planted for the future grand children), but there are other trees that I use that can be much younger.

For example I've got a clump of hazel at the bottom of my garden that's going to provide my bean poles this year and the tops will be my pea sticks. Although this clump has to be removed, due to some drainage work I need to do, it would provide my bean poles for many years to come if it was harvested properly, alone with firewood and other things. I've planted lots of hazels in my coppice as a future replacement for this clump, as well as some extra firewood, but it got me thinking.

The rest of my coppice is going to be planted up to hybrid willow to be cropped on a short rotation for firewood, but willow has many other uses and maybe it would be worth planting some different types encase I wanted to use some in the future. 

Really well packaged willow

One use you think of is basketry when you think of willow, and I don't think I've got the time to start that any time soon, but it's also great for making hurdles and climbing features in the garden, both of which would be great things to do with the children on a spring morning and the ability to make my own hurdles would be very useful when we've got stock or to keep wild animals out. 

So I set about on the internet to find some more willows. I've already got a couple of hundred hybrids planted (although they haven't done that well yet) so I wanted to increase the diversity of the willow I've got for firewood and to plant some willow for basketry to be grown in a separate plot. 

I stumbled upon the world of willow website which had over 80 varieties of willow to choose from, From firewood and basketry to growing willow for goat feed and bees. there were slightly more expensive than buying cuttings from eBay but I wanted it to come from a reliable source, especially if I'm to propagate from it in the future.

It came with lots of information on each type of willow that I had

I chose two packs, one for fuel and short rotation coppice (50 of these) and one for basketry (20 of these), with five varieties in each. 

In the SRC selection there was - Common Osier (K45), Viminalis x viminalis Honey (K46), Triandra x Viminalis (K47), Nordica (K48) and Swedish Osier (K62) - It will be interesting to see which does best on my land.

In the basketry selection there was - Willam Rogers (K1), Golden (K17), Calliantha (K39), Harrison (K58), Pheasant Brown (K63).

I was really pleased that I had such diversity in the packs and the colours in the basketry pack were really great (Golden looks lovely) I was also pleased that it came with a information sheet on each variety of willow along with planting instructions, it doesn't take much but the little touches are really appreciated. It was also really well packaged, each type being sealed in a packet and labled up.

I'll hopefully get these in over the weekend (through some weed matting this time), I'm really looking forward to seeing how these grow.

Anyone else got any other trees planted for uses other than firewood?

BTW - This post is not in any way sponsored by World Of Willow, infact they don't even know I've written it yet (but if they want to send me anything I won't say no!).

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?