Willow Lessons 2025

This is the year I really got a feel for willow, because the intensity of the first plantings has given way to relief in the second and this year, the third. Like a cat, willow doesn’t really need you.  We had enough rain this year that we had to do very few watering runs.  It was the weeding and mowing that took up our time. 

My schedule now turns on the hope that the spring and summer are rainy and the fall and winters are dry.  Of course, the weather will no longer conform to any pattern so it’s a week to week thing. 

All I can do now during dormancy besides wait for orders and ship dates is to pore over my database and see what numbers can tell me. We have planted 862 cuttings, both purchased (240) and home grown (622) over the 3 years GWF has been operational, about a 2.59 replication rate. But that’s just the gross numbers. I currently have 704 viable plants, a loss of nearly 18%. That’s due to my own inexperience. My first 70 cuttings were in pots for their first year,  and that hampered their growth. (and in fact 4 of the 7 varieties are STILL in pots, so there’s that) That was because I didn’t get the farm property in hand and accessible for another year. And pots are much more work to plant than cuttings. So that first group showed a 50% loss by itself. 

And my second mistake was to not refrigerate my cuttings last harvest  because I thought the weather would stay cold enough. Yes, thank you climate change. We had spring in February this year, about 6 weeks early.  I also didn’t regularly check for mold or fungus, and I lost a few dozen that way, even before the planting bed was ready. 

We managed to finish planting before May, but we had to race to get the last cuttings in the ground because they were growing roots and leaves already.  I had saved the rods on a north-facing  porch, out of the sun, and usually very cold in the winter.  While I cut and stored 685 cuttings, I only planted 604 and currently of those cuttings, only 454 are viable, with 42 more that are struggling. 

Without a dedicated refrigerator,  I couldn’t store them consistently.  For various reasons, I won’t have one this year or probably next. My solution this year is to leave the rods on the plant til mid spring, and just cut as needed for orders and for our new set of beds.  I hope this works and I lose fewer cuttings.  I have also become a bit of a nag on the subject of “plant them right away!” Apologies, I came to it by sad experience. 

Interestingly, one of my original suppliers of cuttings has a 100% success rate; of the 70 I planted, 70 are still viable. The other has a success rate of 82%, for 20 failed planted stalks out of 114. That sounds bad, but I only ordered 10 each of 10 varieties. They sent 14 extra cuttings across varieties, sort of a bakers dozen approach to orders. One variety didn’t grow at all, and maybe they were compensating me ahead of time. That’s one way to control inventory and loss. They also had a fail rate of 18% and they are an established and respected willow grower. But I think the weather can be tricky and likely everyone is caught short in one way or another these days. In that way, all crops grown outdoors are the same. 

Hopes for the New Year - 

A few months ago, a friend gave me some 20 bags of wool skirtings from her Romney sheep flock. My plan this winter is to take up the landscape fabric on the oldest bed and mulch it heavily with wool. To counteract the wind, I’ll cover the fleece with a 1”x2” netting. Hopefully it will mat or felt into breathable and long wearing natural mulch. This is the smallest bed and the wool plus netting plan is experimental, but I’m hopeful that eventually I can get rid of the plastic fabric. 

And the second commitment for the new year is to take a pile of the Miyabeana rods and make some living gazebos and fencing. We have a surplus of Miya - 200 long rods -  and that variety is tall and fast growing. This is going to be the fun part. 

And someday, if it please the goddess, we will get some irrigation lines going and we can stop saving ice tea jugs. 

We are trying to adapt along the way, but I still think, ‘not bad’ when I look at what we did, largely by hand, just two old ladies. And again, willow makes us look good. 

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A note on inventory numbers and how squishy they can be.

My inventory count on plants is variable from date to date. I have had plants that looked dead come back to life and I have had whole plants nestled under others that had avoided being counted for months until I cut them back. I can attest how many plants, rods and cuttings I had at harvest last year, but the count varies from that to planting to fall  inventory. The one thing I miss now that I am delaying harvest is having a verifiable number to count at the end of the year. 

End of Year lessons

We had a year this year. It wasn’t an easy year for most WNC farmers, but our troubles were largely medical and didn’t impact the farm directly. The willow is fine, we just didn’t get enough done to build the farm up. 

Willow-wise, we did pretty well. There was a spell of fungus early in the year - too much rain - and one variety proved irresistible to Japanese beetles, but otherwise, the second year harvest is looking good. I wrote another piece about the willow lessons - separate from the farm lessons - that will follow up this post. 

On the negative column, all the infrastructure we had planned is still on hold. There is still money held out for a shed and a bit more driveway, but it’s clear we are still very much bare bones.  Still watering from ice tea jugs, as you can see from our photos. 

Everything costs so very much more, even from when I first started planning this in 2022.  We think it’s better to stay bare bones for the time being. That approach has saved this new business a fair amount of money already - no need for a tractor and it’s headaches when willow beds are cleared only once in 7-10 years, if that. It’s overkill. We’ve got a local guy with the whole rig and needing a bit of cash 2 or 3 times a year. It works for both of us. Local connections are golden. 

I am also delighted to connect with other willow farmers, on FB and IG, and have learned a lot from them. It is also clear that willow is becoming popular, and that makes me so happy. It also means there’s lots of competition for a small business like GWF. I don’t really mind that. 

I have been in the craft world for the last 25 years. I know that world. But I’m not planning to become a basketmaker. I prefer to remain a supplier and anything I weave in the process will likely be simple and mostly for fun. I actually own over a hundred baskets, having collected them over the years. I inherited several from my mom. I am familiar enough, having been a weaver of cloth, with the process to know what to pay attention to. Other than that, I honor the artists who use willow and other plants to weave into wonderful vessels and artworks. I hope to have dried willow rods for them in summer of 2027. 

At least half of our plantings are specifically for basketry. Most of them are Purpureas, which are proving to need 1-2 years to mature. The four in that family that are available have done really well and are becoming productive. We are letting  the other 4 mature another year. I'm also ordering several new basketry varieties that will be future offerings.  I just have to be patient about entering this market, because willow takes the time it takes.

And to tell the truth, I am just a bit more excited about willow in the landscape. And they have all done really well here in WNC clay. Fencing, hedges and privacy screens - so much cheaper and easier to install and maintain than other sources. So beautiful in all seasons. So little maintenance. And then, the possibility of a living structure, one that renews itself every year. Sculptures, shelters, gazebos, so many uses!  Hopefully we can install a few of these living willow structures this spring. 

All of which to say is that we are diversified and feel good about that direction. And while it has been exciting to sell cuttings this year - we dance around every time an order comes in - we are just grateful to have that little bit of extra income because it’s 2025 and we are all walking that tightrope, seniors especially. 

Thank you for your support and encouragement this year. Blessings on all small businesses and may 2026 bring better times for us all. 

Taking Stock

We finished our last tasks for the winter last week: mowing, trimming, weeding and inventory. I sat in the car awhile to admire the valley in the afternoon sun and feel the pride of making something happen. Our second growing season done, and we are already able to start a small business with our first major harvest.  

I think we are one of very few southern farms growing willow, and I wondered when we started whether it would do well here. Well, it made it through the drought days and the torrential rain and wind and so far, it does damn well! I hope other folks see a potential in growing willow for themselves, because it is rewarding  - and - forgiving. The life cycle of willow has been easy to fit into our lives.  

Speaking of fitting into our lives, I’ve made a decision to forgo the big harvest push and instead cut as needed. That means I’ll be overwintering most of the rods on the plants and just cut enough for orders and to gradually fill in our new beds in December and January.  In February, I’ll cut what rods are still standing and then use some for living willow structures and dry some for basketry. With this system, we’ll avoid  doing all that labor at once. I won’t have  to buy a dedicated refrigerator to store cuttings. I’m also more assured that all cuttings we sell are fresh and viable for the customer. Win, win, win. 

There are plenty of busy work projects we could do between now and December when we start planting new beds, but likely we’ll take a few weeks off to do other things.  I am starting to spread the word about the online shop, so you will see posts pop up in willow groups.  Small business = always working, even if you have to change hats every few weeks. 

Check out our shop site! The shop will be open between now and February 27 for cuttings orders. I’ll start shipping in mid December. If you want to know more about willow growing, and the purchasing and shipping process, go to this web page. You can see all 12 varieties of willow that are for sale right now, their characteristics and uses, on this page. 

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Here we are already - almost November

 

I've been doing the inventory and planning for the next year's plantings. It's just getting cold enough to force the beds into dormancy but several of the varieties are still in leaf, so we are waiting on them to start harvesting. 

After plotting out the rest of the eastern field area, and allocating bed space for 40-50 plants each for our 15 varieties able to provide enough cuttings, I know. We've only got room for about 800 more starts. We are also going into prep and planting season without any helpers so simultaneously, we only have energy for about 800 as well. 600 took us down last year, but we will have to spread it out over this winter and I think we can do it. (Helpers still wanted!!!)

I would feel bad about not doing multiple thousands of new starts, but we are doing this farm on a shoestring, just a few pieces of residential equipment and the labor is decidedly slow (us). But, even the 800 plants we have now are producing enough that we can sell a significant number of cuttings and still double our planted inventory. So here's the announcement!

Orders will begin on November 10th. Shipping can begin as early as December, through the end of February. We'll be selling packs of 10 for $20 of 12 varieties. Check out the descriptions here.  The shop site is hosted by Tinker and Spinner this year, but Good Willow Farm will have its own shop next fall.