Basket Willow Planted

 I finally got some more willow planted. I've wanted to do a bed of basket willow since I planted the hybrid stuff over ten years ago.

I got some from a friend and some I got online (from world of willow).

Willow I've planted - Salix Viminalis Brittany Green Harrisons Green Golden Rod Black Maul Golden Deep Purple Austrian Grey

I'm really looking forward to seeing how this lot grows, with plants to maybe increase the area in future years.

Anyone else grow willow for weaving? What's your favourite variety?

Willow Wands As Party Favours

Our boy had a birthday party on Sunday. It was pretty full on, a whole class of 6 and 7 year olds! 

He wanted it magic themed (I'll share the cake soon) and so we decided to make some willow wands to give to everyone in their party bags. 

Years ago we used a local weaver to make some for the bags, but now we have enough willow growing to have a go at making them ourselves. 

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. 

Growing Perches

About 6 years ago I started to plant up some patches of willow. It's grown well and I just love standing in the little coppice in the summer where the young trees tower over me. 

When I planted it up most was planted for short rotation  firewood for a wood stove, but it has been really useful for other things. When ever I've done bushcraft lessons I've harvest poles for use for cooking over the fire, last spring we started harvesting bean poles (which we stripped the bark to stop them growing)

I think firewood should always be the last thing wood is used for, so any other uses it has first is ideal and I need to start doing this more. The chicken coops needed some new perches and I'm automatically thought I needed to buy some batten to do the job. But then when I have a large patch of willow with lots of the wood being the right diameter, it seems daft to use anything else.  

So I rounded up the children and went to coppice a few trees for what we needed (my daughter also wanted to make some wands!). I know willow isn't the most durable of timbers but it should be fine for a few chicken perches and when they break they can then be burnt! 

The wind was really blowing as well so the children tried to fly their kite - a great way to wear them out!

I've ordered a few more different types of basket willow cuttings to add to what we have already. I plan to pollard these rather than coppice them, who knows what use we'll find for it in the future! We might cut down a few more rows of what we already have (it'll come back stronger) and use it to weave something as a great activity to do with the kids. 

What material do you grow for use in the garden or the smallholding?

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?

Rooting Hormone From Willow

This is part self sufficiency, part being tight and part forgetting to buy some rooting compound when I went to the garden centre! 

Crack willow

I'd got back from the garden centre with compost, grit and sharp sand and had plans to do lots of cuttings in the afternoon, then I realised I forgot to buy rooting compound, so I decided to make my own and see if it works.

The idea is simple, willow roots so well because of the indolebutyric acid it contains in its branches, this is a plant hormone that simulate root growth. By steeping branches in water this acid, along with Salicylic acid which cuts down on infection into the cuttings, leaches into the liquid. In doing so you create a liquid that can be used as a rooting hormone. 

Well that's the idea at least.

Here's the stages in pictures:

Child labour stripping leaves

I got both of them working!

Stripped branches - leaves for compost.

Cut up small

Boiling water added

The liquid 24 hours later, strained and ready for use

Some of the cuttings - now I have to wait.

To use the liquid I stripped some leaves off each cutting, then cut each to the right length, then left them for ten minutes to soak in the liquid before putting it in a gritty compost mix in my root trainers. After I finished I diluted the remaining liquid and used this to water the cuttings in.

Hopefully the cuttings will root easily and I'll have lots more plants in a few months.

Has anyone else done this and what result have you had?

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!).

Pollarding Willow

My brother sprang a nice surprise on me this weekend again with a visit with his chainsaw. He's buying a house and wants to make sure he does some jobs for me before he need to be working on his own place (and so that I'll also be available to help him when he gets it).

The big tree inthe middle is an old willow tree leaning into the field.

 Looking around the fields we decided that the one oak that needs a lot of work doing to it was too big of a task to do on a Sunday and he'd possibly need another climber with him, so we settled for some willows on the property line. 

The whole hedge is overgrown and neglected but provides a nice barrier so I'm not going to attack it too much, but there are a few trees growing out over the field that need attention. The one willow was very rotten in the middle and would probably fall if left for too many more years. We decided to pollard it, so new growth would be produced at the top of the tree trunk (away from rabbits) and in this way it would have a new crop of wood on it in a few years time. 

Trees used to be pollarded for many reasons, to produce a leaf hay to store food for animals in the winter, to produce timber for different things like basket making or hurdles and now people pollard to produce an attractive shape for their trees. 

It needed climbing to tackle it so not a job for me!

The tree pretty much finished with Dave just roped into the last branch

The tree finished, this should regrow well and produce some more fire wood in a few years time

One pile of firewood

Even the smaller branches get used for fire wood when I'm cutting it up

The second pile from another willow

The piles of brash ready to be burnt when it's dried out a bit.

 As well as this willow Dave also managed to do another, much more awkward willow and a few small ash that were growing from the base of a much bigger tree, adding to the pile of future firewood.

Hopefully all this wood will go some way to provide for next years heating (once I've got it cut, split and stacked) and although I know it's not a great wood it still burns well in our wood burner if it's dry. 

Anyone else been pollarding trees for firewood or other reasons?

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?