Planting Willow 2022

Spring of 2022 has come and I can’t believe that I now have 6,000 willows planted in 6 different sections on the farm, which I have since named Willowbrook Basket Farm, hence the new title on my site.

This year I purchased willow from Lakeshore Willows, Dunbar Gardens, and a couple from Vermont Willows. I felt much better prepared this year and I even got to plant about 450 cuttings from some of my first year willows, and I even got a couple hundred from Jo as well.

Most of the willows were planting during some crazy April sun and snow showers. The final 1,200 were planted with my oldest son, which I really enjoyed and I hope he did too. I couldn’t resist a couple photos of the beautiful cuttings I got this year. So many different varieties that I can’t remember them all, but thankfully I have it all written down. I has been so much fun watching how they are all doing, and which ones do better than others.

There were a couple of small set backs this year, a little creature nibbled on some of my favorite willow and one weekend a whole bunch of the fabric lifted up off the ground. I realize that there are always going to be setbacks and everything I do is going to require fixing, and troubleshooting, and re-fixing, but then eventually everything starts to fall into place. I also learned you can never have enough staples, especially in the very very wet sections of my field.

I did get to harvest and sort some of the willow that was not big enough to use for cuttings. It was only a couple little bundles but looking at them all taped up made this whole adventure feel legit. And the willow that was big enough for cuttings, got cut and the tips I put into water to pit for stripping the bark off later. The cuttings are growing beautifully which makes me really hopeful for the coming years when I should be able to expand based on just my own supply. To be honest I’m looking forward to not spending thousands of dollars on sticks each year.

At the end of winter I even got to tap more maples and use cuttings to make more willow schnapps. It’s feels so great to do all these small but fun tasks each season

One of my favorite extra little projects was getting the barn organized. This last winter I really just didn’t have the time to pick up after every task so getting a new shelving unit put up and everything sorted felt so wonderful this spring.

It has been beyond wonderful seeing the results of my hard work. All my garlic that I planted in the fall in the middle of a rainstorm is looking great and the willow I planted last year looks to be gearing up for a spectacular year. I can count 20+ buds on just 1 cutting which totally blows my mind. These little wins are really making this place feel like a real farm, and giving me the hope that I’ll be able to successfully do this in the years to come.

I even got two more of my planting boxes full of new goodies; a whole bunch of onions (4 different varieties) and I found a local nursery selling Rhubarb so I bought 5 plants to help supplement my older plants that got divided and totally hate me right now. I’m really looking forward to keep adding more and more vegetables and fruit trees eventually! Send some good vibes for the onions because they have to be pretty self sufficient like the garlic is.