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?

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!).