More rain but no chill, establishing fedges and container wars in Seattle
The focus this week is on the versatile willow
It’s been a depressing month weatherwise. My weather station has recorded 113mm of rain and there are still two wet days to go, no wonder I have achieved all of my writing targets but very few of my gardening tasks. One of the most depressing sights has been the large population of slugs tucked away in damp spots awaiting the arrival of my seedlings.
Will February be one of the wettest on record? We’ve had more than double the usual, so it will be one of the wettest, but it won’t break the record for February 2020 – when Wales received an average of 289 mm and England 155mm, so perhaps 113mm isn’t that bad! And on a brighter note, April 2020 was on the sunniest on record. No wonder we were all desperate to get outside during the first covid lockdown. Let hope 2024 follows the same pattern.
But for me the more worrying statistic is the lack of chilly days. There’s been a handful of days when temperatures were below 7C, instead the average temp has sat around 8-9C. Chill hours, when temperature lie between 1 and 7C, are so important for our fruit trees, especially plums and damsons that require more than 1000 hours over the winter. It will be interesting to see how this is reflected in the flowering and pollination in the orchards. Let’s hope temperatures nose dive for a few weeks so we can clock up some more chill hours.
The versatile willow
I have spent a lot of time this week working with willow. I grow it across my farm, in small wildlife copses, as shelter belts, in beds for simply harvesting willow wands, and for willow woodchip. In the video you can see one of the beds planted up with a mix of willow hybrids including those with red, yellow, orange or purple bark and the contorta ones that have a corkscrew stem. All grow to several metres in height and are coppiced regularly to get a supply of new wands,
Willow is a great way to boost biodiversity too, as it is the food plant for many caterpillars and an early nectar source for bees. In fact, the grey willow growing just outside my walled garden is buzzing with insects in early spring. And as you can see in the close up photo of a catkin, it is full of pollen that bees love.
This week I have been laying a willow hedge and taking willow cuttings to establish another length of hedge. Willow is easily established from cuttings by simply pushing a length of stem in the ground over winter. The ideal cutting is around 10mm thick and 300mm long and pushed to half its length into the ground. You can expect to get 3 or 4 shoots in the first year, each around one metre long. I usually plant two rows of cuttings, about 50 cm apart. This allow me to coppice one row, keeping the second row with long wands to provide shelter.
But be warned, if you use willow in the garden as living sculptures, be prepared for a lot of maintenance. I discovered this when I constructed a living trellis of willow shoots or fedge. It took me ages to carefully arrange the lattice of shoots. Initially, it looked lovely and then the shoots started to appear. It required continual pruning to contain it. Eventually, I let it have its own way and it grew into a thick hedge. A local manor house had built a wonderful willow maze, but I can’t repeat what the gardener said about maintenance.
And don’t forget, if you use willow wands to construct an arch or other plant support, they must be dead. If not, you will soon find that you have a living arch.
One for waterlogged ground
We’ve seen a lot of waterlogged soil this winter as well as temporary flooding and willow is one of the few woody species that can cope with these conditions. It also helps to reduce flood risk, as its roots stabilise the soil and slow the run off of water. It’s so valuable in this way that many water companies pay farmers to plant willow for this purpose. Although associated with damp ground, the hybrid willows are tolerant of a wide range of soil types, and I have grown them successfully on free draining sandy soils.
Medicinal willow
It’s long been observed that animals that are sick or in pain choose to eat willow for its analgesic and anti-inflammatory effects, a result of the salicin in the bark. Salicin, which is converted into salicylic acid in the body, was used medicinally to reduce pain, and treat rheumatic fever and gout. But it caused gastrointestinal upset, so it was chemically modified to acetylsalicylic acid or aspirin. However, willows vary in their salicin content. The native osier, Salix viminalis and its hybrids are recorded as having the lowest levels, while Salix purpurea has the highest.
Fighting apple scab
There is mounting evidence that the salicin in willow may be able to help disease resistance in other plants, including scab in apples caused by the fungus Venturia inaequalis. Trials by Dr Glynn Percival at the University of Reading found that a willow wood chip mulch around a scab susceptible old apple variety called Crown Gold reduced the severity of scab. It’s thought that as the willow wood chip decays, the salicin is released into the soil where it is taken up by the tree roots. If you have willow on your holding, applying a willow woodchip mulch around your apple trees may help to combat this disease, which is why most of my willow woodchip ends up in the orchard.
So, in the right place, willow is the perfect climate change tree to improve the resilience of your garden or holding. You can read more in my article on willow for CountrySmallholder Magazine that is still available online
Willow as an alternative plant rooting compound?
A post on IG caught my eye this week and, if I am being honest, annoyed me. The poster (with a huge following) said that if you chopped up willow shoots and soaked them in water you could use the resulting willow water as a plant rooting stimulant. Many moons ago, I did some research into rooting cuttings and even published a paper, so I wasn’t convinced by the idea of willow water and I did a bit of digging.
Plants have many plant growth regulators, or plant hormones, which affect their physiological processes – germination, cell division, flowering, abscission and dormancy, for example and two of which are found in shop bought rooting powder - auxin and cytokinin.
I know willow roots very easily and that’s because it has a naturally high concentration of auxin. However, auxin is insoluble in water, so its not going to diffuse into the water. Willow can be used as a source of auxin, but it has to be extracted with alcohol. Also, the levels of auxin have to be very high to be of any use.
Secondly, the salicin. Although salicin is not a plant growth regulator, it may make the auxin more effective, but you need to be using a willow with high levels of salicin to product an effective willow water.
More importantly, do we actually need rooting powder? I root a lot of plants by simply taking a soft or semi ripe cutting and leaving it in a container of water until the roots appear, or else, I simply push it into a pot containing a sandy substrate and keep it humid in a bag. I have never bothered to buy rooting compound, so why would I bother with making willow water?
There’s lots online about willow water, although little on what I would call reliable sites. One of my favourite fact checking sites is Garden Myths, a blog dedicated to unearthing the truth about gardening, written by Master Gardener Robert Pavlis from Ontario. You can read his verdict on willow water here.
Net Zero Willow
I am currently trialling a bagged compost called Net Zero Willow. It’s produced by a companty called Willow Energy that is growing willow in short rotation coppice in Cumbria. The company is hoping to produce a sustainable British compost with the lowest possible carbon footprint. At the moment, the start up is working with a Danish company to perfect their compost. The composted willow is described as having a high humus content and active microbes. It’s got quite a fibrous texture, so not really suitable for seeds, but I am using it as a mulch on my flower and veg beds and in containers.
I have also received some bags of Heart of Eden multipurpose that I mentioned last week in my round up of the garden Press Event. I plan to trial it alongside the willow compost, most likely growing courgettes in two containers, one filled with willow compost and the other with Heart of Eden’s offering, which bring me to Kim’s container war in Seattle …..
Container wars in Seattle
Kim is back from her trip the North West Flower and Garden Festival where she was kept busy with talks and other activities. This included two fun events where she was partnered with Michael Perry aka Mr Plant Geek. The first was ‘Bring it home’ when Kim and Michael had to choose the items they would most like to take home. Include din Kim’s selection was an oyster mushroom kit, a pot of herbs and a watering can.
The other was Container Wars. These take place daily and are amongst the most popular events of the whole show and I thoroughly enjoyed watching them last year. Two speakers are pitched against each other and tasked with create stunning containers in 60 minutes, both having been given the same selection of plants, while at the same time answering questions from the audience and sabotaging the efforts of their competitor. Kim came away with the winner’s rosette, but according to Michael, there was a lot of skulduggery involved.
And today we celebrate the publication of Kim’s new book The Climate Change Resilient Vegetable Garden available online via all the usual outlets
Happy Gardening
Sally
Talks and Workshops
Talk 14 March Sally is talking on the climate change garden at Wells Garden Club, Somerset
Workshop 24 March An Introduction to growing fruit and vegetables with Sally at her garden at Empire Farm in Somerset - couple of places available
Workshop 5 April Growing polytunnel and undercover edibles over winter with Kim from her garden in West Wales
Workshop 19 April Get climate change savvy GYO course with Kim from her garden in West Wales
What a great read! I’m feeling very down in the dumps about another rainy day at work tomorrow so I’m cheered to learn the weather really is rubbish and I’m not just a wuss. Feb 2020 I was mainly pregnant on a couch which at least kept me dry 😂. And thanks for the willow insight! I saw that too. I never bother with rooting powder but I’m quite heavily into plants that will make it without a lot of extra help.x
Thank you ! Love experimenting with willow. I am convinced that rooting powder is one of those ploys by hort companies to make us buy things we don't really need. And it goes off so quickly too.