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Willow Windbreaks

Many gardeners use willow shelterbelts and windbreaks. Using trees and shrubs to protect crops has been used for many years and is more effective than solid fences and walls as the wind is filtered and slowed, whereas solid obstacles cause problems with eddies. The wide range of willow varieties and hybrids available enables growers to plant windbreaks suited to different requirements, for example smaller growing S.

purpurea can be used as internal windbreaks and the larger trees such as S.alba and S. fragilis as perimeter shelterbelts. Pollarding (beheading a tree about 6ft above the ground) the larger willows produces a mass of sideshoots. Cropping the shoots every seven years provides rods for firewood, stakes, hurdle-making and rough willow

weaving. Pollards can be planted as big living stakes known as truncheons. Willows can be chosen from the wide range of varieties for hedges and windbreaks that can be

attractive as well as useful with colourful catkins yielding pollen for bees in the spring. Creative gardeners weave their hedges into living willow fences, which can be made even more interesting by mixing varieties that had different coloured stems.

Some willows suitable for hedges and windbreaks are;

Tall perimeter windbreaks (trees) - S.alba, S. fragilis and hybrids (many field edge

willows began life as quick fix fencing stakes that grew to become trees)

Hedges and internal windbreaks (shrubs) - S. viminalis, S. x dasyclados, S. daphnoides and hybrids.

Animal Fodder

Green leaves and branches have been used as fodder ever since animal husbandry

began. At every goat show around the country you can see bunches of branches that have been cut for goat fodder. Willow is often used for this purpose.

In New Zealand the Royal Salix or Kiwi willow (Salix alba x S. matsudana) has been developed by the Crown Research Institute as a fodder and timber crop.

'The tree coppices (resprouts from the stump) very vigorously, and can be successfully treated as either a biomass energy, fodder, or timber crop depending on rotation length and silvicultural practices. Wood quality is comparable to poplar species: straight grained, light and easy to work, with great compression strength for its weight.
Foliage is silver-green, turning to yellow-gold in autumn. Royal Salix are the first trees to break dormancy and leaf in the spring, and among the very last trees to lose their leaves in the fall. It can be trained to any height or shape, from hedges to stately tall trees, and can be bent and tied to a neighbour to form green arches which eventually fuse and graft together to become one tree.'

Livestock farmers in New Zealand grow paddocks of densely planted willows (4,500 stems per acre) as emergency forage during periods of drought. After the growth has been grazed the paddocks are left to resprout.

CONTACTS

Coppice Green Nursery. (01934 838017)

A F Hill & Son. (01527 892472)

Robert Goodwin. (01376 573236)

Edgar Watts. (01986 892751)

P H Coate & Son. (01823 490249

R R Hector. (01823 490236)