Trees amaze me
I work with wood every day and yet there's not a day when I'm not amazed by them.
I try to make sure I plant more than I cut down and I managed to tip the balance again on this the other day at my dad and brothers.
They're building a new set of barns and had created a bund behind it to shield the buildings from the neighbours view. This bund is the very typical red clay soil that we have on their farm. It takes a while for trees and stuff to establish but then it romps away once it gets its roots down.
So my brothers idea was to plant it up with willow and maybe undertow it with something else to prevent the weeds (nettles, docks and fat hen) from establishing. When I thinned out my section of hybrid willow here.
I've no idea how many we planted but it must be about 300. Watch the shirt video above to see how we got on.
Like having lots of willow growing?
You could also plant Dogwoods. I made 120 new plants on Wednesday when it was raining and I passed an hour making new plants. I like the idea of sowing white Clover for a weed suppressant. It's also a Legume so it will feed Nitrogen to the willow plants through it's root nodes. You could even harvest it all again and you will have even more plants. Nice job and a good way to soften or screen a farm building.
ReplyDeleteThat was my thinking with the white clover, willow doesn't like much growing around it, but I figure this will help. I'm looking forward to help with managing this in the future.
DeleteDave is on it - white clover - I was going to suggest lupins
ReplyDeleteWhat type of lupins? Sounds like a beautiful solution!
DeleteTree karma! Love it! I can't imagine how satisfying it is to be able to simply poke them into the soil. Your red clay must be loads different than our red clay here in North Carolina. Here it's like concrete.
ReplyDeleteWell done!
Tree karma was always my brothers thing! I love the idea of it though and try to keep mine balanced, especially as a carpenter. Ours does go hard in summer, but it does stick like glue when it's wet!
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