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Talkback: How to make willow plant supports
sunflowergarden
Posts: 10
in Talkback
WHERE CAN I GET THE WILLOW FROM.
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Posts
what will the willow be used?
The willow is much easier to manipulate if it is soaked overnight in a bath or pond.
Let's all aim to reuse what we already grow in our gardens, rather than meekly buying something because it's the traditional material for the job - even when we have a perfectly good, homegrown alternative
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Save the canes from cutting back the dogwood
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I did a day's course learning to make an obelisk from willow. They were fresh withies cut in late winter so we had to let them dry out a few days when we got them home if we didn't want them to grow in the garden. It was lovely and very satisfying but by the end of the next winter it was ruined. Not designed to stand up to howling gales, heavy rains or snow or -20C apparently.
I coppice my willows every February & use the withies after soaking for various little projects & make loads of these each year. I try to find homes for all the willow cutting I can't use but always end up either chipping it and turning it into mulch, which takes about 3 yeas!, or burning it for the ash to use in the summer as feed for the flowers & to help resist black fly on the beans! Seems a shame but not even the local florists are interested in it. I also cut back my Cornus at the same time. I have the red & bright green stemmed species in the field, again most of it goes to the mulch heap or burnt for ash so one way or another it's recycled back into the garden.
i like your idea DianaW of using other plants for similar use ????
I have a willow I coppice thinking of putting in a hazel as well. Something very satisfying harvesting a tree in that way. My neighbours never seem to catch on, 'oh you cut down your tree', yep for about the tenth time in the last decade