Can I make all usual structures with just wood from my small woodland?

[Qwercus]

No, I wrote that I volunteered somewhere that coppice workers would come by and give advice here and there. I never said anything about working as a hedge layer.


You just mention 20-30% would be lost so why would it be ludicrous to go over by a bit. Someone else said it would take in the thousands to cover 2 acres. Thousands -20 to 30 loss sounds like 10k would be a fair figure.


Why are you making out like that is such a ridiculous thing? My neighbour told me he got them for free from co-op so it isn't such a fantastical leap to think other high street shops might give them away. I have also heard people picking them up over the years like this.

I have gotten cardboard boxes many times when moving by asking for them at shops so why would I be led to think pallets would be different?

Basket Willows, usually called Osiers or Withies are really quite common. They were planted in riverside beds when almost every town and village had a resident Basketmaker. The trade has declined since the age of plastic and the beds have fallen into disuse or often been grubbed out, however some of the original stools have grown into large trees and can be found in hedges or wetland places.
They have a longer and narrower leaf than the common willow. If you know how to identify them cuttings can usually be obtained for free.
Short rods about a foot long pushed well into the damp ground will take root, even the least green-fingered person can't go wrong.
Now is the time to plant and you should get a harvestable crop after three years.
Then you can build your Wattle Hut.

 

[jetsetwilly]

About pallets:
Some pallets are better than others if you want to cut them or burn them:
https://www.universalpallets.com/2018/01/ultimate-guide-pallet-markings/

Pallets are reusable packaging, but are often discarded esp if damaged, or in places where their value isn't important. As has been said, driving your van (you mentioned a van) round some industrial estates will soon fill it up with pallets for free. We don't know where you are so can't suggest any. IME suburban skips are also good, or community forums - is your mum on a residential facebook group for instance?

About planting willows (of which I know nothing):

Basic advice: https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/plant-trees/advice/how-to-plant/
This site looks useful and has numbers: https://www.musgrovewillows.co.uk/blog/planting-willow-cuttings/

About tree species - if you can't post a picture of at least a leaf, then I think you might need to do your own identifying. 'Round and ribbed' isn't a lot for us to go on, but if you have a book to hand then it's easy enough to do it yourself usually. Something like this. They will focus on leaves, fruit, habit (the shape of the tree) and bark usually.

 

[dickm]

At our last house, I was growing an apricot up the side wall of the garage, but decided to enlarge the garage, so moved the apricot out into the garden. Supported it with a willow stake. The apricot died, but the willow flourished.
(and as an aside, we had the best crop of apricots we've ever achieved this year. In an unheated Aberdeenshire greenhouse)

 

[Plwm]

We planned approx 300 willows for a short rotation coppice about 8 years ago to supplementothe firewood. Probably paid around £100 or so, 3 different hybrid varieties in case of disease. They were about 30cm long withy's (rods) - used a thick metal bar pushed into the ground to create the hole to put the withy in. Done in a couple of hours, planted in Spring approx 50cm apart in double rows, 1m between each double row.
Left them to grow for a year, the following spring all cut down to 12" or so. Each year after we harvest 1/4 of them in succession for firewood, use some of the too thin branches for woven edges to paths etc. We get roughly 1-4" thick logs.... Gives you an idea of what you could expect.
Take your cuttings in early spring before the leaves come out and strim the ground cover back so less competition for nutrients.

Pallets - as others have said, go to a farm supply shop. I've done it many times to get free pallets they don't want to make compost bins, chicken houses, log stores etc.
If on wet ground put a few inches of gravel down first so they have less chance of rotting.

Happy to answer questions but I feel the advice you seek may be better off posted in a bushcraft forum? - there is a UK bushcraft website (Google for it), probably UK Bushcraft?

Hope that helps....

 

[woodlearner9810182]

We planned approx 300 willows for a short rotation coppice about 8 years ago to supplementothe firewood. Probably paid around £100 or so, 3 different hybrid varieties in case of disease. They were about 30cm long withy's (rods) - used a thick metal bar pushed into the ground to create the hole to put the withy in. Done in a couple of hours, planted in Spring approx 50cm apart in double rows, 1m between each double row.
Left them to grow for a year, the following spring all cut down to 12" or so. Each year after we harvest 1/4 of them in succession for firewood, use some of the too thin branches for woven edges to paths etc. We get roughly 1-4" thick logs.... Gives you an idea of what you could expect.
Take your cuttings in early spring before the leaves come out and strim the ground cover back so less competition for nutrients.

Pallets - as others have said, go to a farm supply shop. I've done it many times to get free pallets they don't want to make compost bins, chicken houses, log stores etc.
If on wet ground put a few inches of gravel down first so they have less chance of rotting.

Happy to answer questions but I feel the advice you seek may be better off posted in a bushcraft forum? - there is a UK bushcraft website (Google for it), probably UK Bushcraft?

Hope that helps....

Thanks, yes I joined there as well asking the same.

Yorkshire willows looks way cheaper and only £14 for 100! I realized looking on the site that those mentioned earlier on offer for 10k of them you can buy much smaller amounts but for comparable price.

I can buy a couple of hundred of these for not great price and 'suck it and see'.

For compost (humanure and everything else) bin I am currently using a few old tyres. I picked over a dozen up that had been fly tipped up the road thinking they will be very useful but have been struggling to find things to use them for and just piled at the side and had been somewhat regretful now I am left with them doing nothing. The bloke whose land I think they had been tipped on was very pleased for me to take them I think as he was otherwise going to get the council to take them.

Still open to ideas of how I can use the rest. This 1st compost is filling fast so if nothing else I will just keep using them for that in several stacks.

Do willows also appreciate compost? Great thing about composting for trees I was thinking is that you don't have the same sanitary worries using humanure like you would if growing vege.

For willow growing is seems the size you mention of a few inches thick is great also for making timber structures. Not to small and not to big to work with easily for one person. That and of course the smaller bendy ones. Seems they are a very versatile item to have and wonderful for self-sufficiency.

 

[woodlearner9810182]

About pallets:
Some pallets are better than others if you want to cut them or burn them:
https://www.universalpallets.com/2018/01/ultimate-guide-pallet-markings/

Pallets are reusable packaging, but are often discarded esp if damaged, or in places where their value isn't important. As has been said, driving your van (you mentioned a van) round some industrial estates will soon fill it up with pallets for free. We don't know where you are so can't suggest any. IME suburban skips are also good, or community forums - is your mum on a residential facebook group for instance?

About planting willows (of which I know nothing):

Basic advice: https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/plant-trees/advice/how-to-plant/
This site looks useful and has numbers: https://www.musgrovewillows.co.uk/blog/planting-willow-cuttings/

About tree species - if you can't post a picture of at least a leaf, then I think you might need to do your own identifying. 'Round and ribbed' isn't a lot for us to go on, but if you have a book to hand then it's easy enough to do it yourself usually. Something like this. They will focus on leaves, fruit, habit (the shape of the tree) and bark usually.

I can post pictures at some point, but don't have the camera yet. Plan to go back to pick up supplies soon. I was thinking maybe if there was a site with common uk trees I could find the ones that match that way. Looking in the little wooded area there were some shoots on the trees that look remarkably like willow, and also bendy. How funny would that be. They also have the little droopy things, catkins, on some of them? I guess they aren't willow but just the shoots look a bit like them.

 

[jetsetwilly]

Willow is a water margin tree and pretty common, but there are other trees that have catkins. This time of year it might be hazel or alder

https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/blog/2018/12/which-trees-have-catkins-and-how-to-tell-them-apart/
https://woodlandclassroom.com/which...f you're seeing these,and birch (Betula spp.)

The most convenient tree identification method is a smartphone app (eg TreeID, plantnet, picturethis etc), which I understand you have no access to? A book is probably the next easiest. Don't know of any browser-based apps though you might be able to use Google Lens (but again you'd need a photo).

https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/trees-woods-and-wildlife/british-trees/how-to-identify-trees/

 

[Plwm]

"Still open to ideas of how I can use the rest. This 1st compost is filling fast so if nothing else I will just keep using them for that in several stacks"

If the area you want to make a camp is boggy how about a grid of tyres filled with gravel and a inch or so on top to provide a dry platform?

Couple of tyres on top of each other, fill with compost to plant whatever veg in = well drained planter...

If it was me I'd get rid of the tyres, wouldn't want my woodland looking like a landfill....

 

[AJB Temple]

No, I wrote that I volunteered somewhere that coppice workers would come by and give advice here and there. I never said anything about working as a hedge layer.


You just mention 20-30% would be lost so why would it be ludicrous to go over by a bit. Someone else said it would take in the thousands to cover 2 acres. Thousands -20 to 30 loss sounds like 10k would be a fair figure.


Why are you making out like that is such a ridiculous thing? My neighbour told me he got them for free from co-op so it isn't such a fantastical leap to think other high street shops might give them away. I have also heard people picking them up over the years like this.

I have gotten cardboard boxes many times when moving by asking for them at shops so why would I be led to think pallets would be different?

10,000 whips is insane. Think about it. You want a screen (you said) not a willow jungle. By the way, they will not make a screen unless you coppice and weave them. Think 6 to 10 years before you get any real thickness. Willow is deciduous so will not screen much during the winter, and it creates a LOT of leaf fall. It will also deplete the soil really rapidly and choke out anything else nearby. I've planted wiillows and made woven willow screens and I think you are barking up the wrong tree. We have two huge willows and they not only drop leaves but also long branch strands everywhere. Parts die off readily if light shielded by other trees.

What is your screen supposed to achieve? If it is privacy then bear in mimd that willow is a tree and if you let it grow you will have a 20ft trunk with no screening at all. You will be forced to cull a lot as they will compete with each other.

If you want a screen that will provide privacy and some winter wind shielding, then buy hornbeam (not beech) bare rooted plants. They will be in season as bare roots in around February (maybe earlier in some parts). Plant in double rows to get thickness. They hold their brown leaves through winter - not as much as beech - and will tolerate very wet conditions (unlike beech). You can get them to keep their branches right down to the ground if clipped as hedges and grow them to a considerable height if you wish. Hornbean from small bare roots will make a thick 2-3m tall hedge in 6 years easily. You will need to protect all of them with spirals or the rabbits and deer will consume the lot.

They come on pallets - so that solves that one for you as well!

Pallets are handled by fork lift trucks. Now ask yourself how may fork lift trucks you see in shops or the high street. How can you not know this? Cardboard boxes - rather different.

I never thought you were a bot but I still think there is something very odd here.

 

[Sgian Dubh]

I never thought you were a bot but I still think there is something very odd here.

I've got to agree with you there because the longer this thread goes on the weirder or more off the wall it seems to get. In fact, that's the main reason I look in now, i.e., to see what fresh weirdness has developed since my last visit. Slainte.