One-year-old willow cuttings
A year ago, I rooted these willow cuttings by the simple method of poking the dormant sticks into the ground in a damp spot. I semi-mulched them with a couple of sheets of cardboard...then I ignored them for the next twelve months.
A few of the cuttings
perished. The biggest danger to baby willows is apparently the
lawnmower, closely followed by dropping large mushroom logs on top of
their tender shoots. Goats nibbled on the leaves too, but that didn't
seem to be as much of a problem.
Now the best-looking
cuttings are blooming and all of the survivors are staring to leaf out. I
snipped all of the side branches so the bushes can start focusing on
upward growth. Soon we'll be in the training stage where I can start
weaving my living-tree sculpture!
Or explore more posts by date or by subject.
About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
Want to be notified when new comments are posted on this page? Click on the RSS button after you add a comment to subscribe to the comment feed, or simply check the box beside "email replies to me" while writing your comment.