Is This the Most Useful Plant on EARTH?

Willow is such an incredibly useful plant, and in this video we explore the details of willow fencing, basket weaving, and ecological restoration using this glorius species!

COMMON QUESTIONS ANSWERED:
Where is this located?: The Willamette Valley of Western Oregon. Zone 8a. Rainfall ~42″ per yr.

What varieties of willow do you recommend?: (From Kara)”In the video you see: Salix alba vitellina, Salix purpurea, Salix daphnoides, and Salix fragilis (various varieties of each). Streambank stabilization is done with native willows (Salix scouleriana and Salix lasiandra in western Oregon). But also, people should look at https://www.willowworld.org/ for specific uses of willows. There really is more to learn than can be communicated in this one video!”

Sorry, we didn’t know Willow is considered invasive in Australia!

Featuring Kara Huntermoon – https://karahuntermoon.com/

Basket weaving by AnewDayFolkcraft – https://www.etsy.com/shop/AnewDayFolkcraft
Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/anewday.folkcraft/

Willow backpack on thumbnail by Beaver Coppiced Willow – https://www.instagram.com/beaver_coppiced_willow/

Oregon State University Online Permaculture Design Course:
https://workspace.oregonstate.edu/course/permaculture-design-certificate-online

Andrew Millison’s links:
https://www.andrewmillison.com/
https://permaculturedesign.oregonstate.edu/

JOIN THIS CHANNEL to get access to uncut video content and live Q & A sessions:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgb_TbreMgfDdLKkr4yYJHw/join

SIGN UP FOR MY FREE NEWSLETTER:
https://share.hsforms.com/1X79TznHYRCWc-8xE3hty7Q9opt

Willow is one of the most useful plants
on the entire planet and we find it
throughout the temperate regions of the
world it’s so versatile it’s so easy to
propagate and it’s really a plant that
could help us to repair many ecosystems
to be more productive more sustainable
more resilient wherever we are Cara
hunter moon has spent countless hours
creating a repository of useful Willow
species I think you’re really going to
enjoy seeing what Cara Hunter moon is
doing in the world of
Willow Willows are an amazing plant to
relate to aside from the gorgeous
baskets we can make from their stems you
can use them for ecological restoration
purposes including stream Bank
stabilization they also can be used to
make beautiful living fences that are
part of the Harvest in your garden not
just a
boundary everyone who walks into my
garden the first thing they really look
at is the willow fences they go wow
what’s that is that alive they’re really
gorgeous why would you put in a metal
fence when you can put in a living fence
as soon as you put in a metal fence it
starts to degrade and it gets worse over
time but when you plant a living Willow
fence it gets stronger over time so you
end up with something that becomes more
functional as it ages and not only that
but we’re stacking functions so you’ve
got a fence you’ve got basket Willow
material that you cut off your fence
when you’re maintaining it you’ve got
habitat at and there’s always the
sequestering of carbon we have to be
thinking about that in everything we do
now so a willow fence will sequester
carbon and especially the way it gets
severely pruned with the polling process
to maintain it as a fence structure
encourages more sequestering of carbon
than if we had just planted a row of
trees Willow has a superpower that a
cutting of any size will attempt to root
these were planted already in a fence
structure and then as they’re being
maintained the stems are getting fat
and eventually everywhere that the stems
cross will graph together and it will be
a solid diamond patterned wall of Willow
with the branches coming out of the top
the way to plant a willow fence is to
harvest cuting in the dormant season and
then plant them directly in the ground
where you want your fence to be
generally in January or February this
will tell us how far apart we’re making
our holes for planting so here’s my
guide here’s my other guide turn it so
it’s
45° there’s different patterns that you
can use but you want to weave the fence
immediately when you plant it so if
you’re doing a diamond pattern you’re
going to do the in out in out and tie
those Crossings immediately after you
put the staks in the
ground each year it will need
maintenance it will need pruning and
shaping if you really want a tight fence
take all the new growth and weave it
into the existing fence line that that
will eventually create a wall of trunk
with branches coming out of the top
another way is to prune off anything
that’s not part of your original diamond
pattern or whatever pattern you planted
and that will make your diamond pattern
get fatter and fatter and graphed
together where it touches itself and
after the second year of growth that’s
the when you want to start
pruning in the winter in particular when
the plant is dormant most of the energy
is stored underground in The Roots so we
could cut this Willow all the way back
to the ground and in the spring it would
regrow from The Roots this is where we
harvested last year and you can see the
cut from this pretty large diameter stem
that I cut off here and this is all the
new
regrowth this branch is 12 ft long and
it grew in one season and there’s not
just one of these there’s this huge
bunch of stems that grew in one year
when I cut these off it’s going to do
the same thing again next year Copus
culture is really important important
and all of our ancestors all over the
world practiced Copus culture at some
point if you go back far enough in time
in history because the ability of trees
to resprout after cutting is really
important for keeping ecosystems intact
and unfortunately we started cutting
forests in a way that was not
sustainable so we need to go back to a
form of Forestry that involves Copus
because when we cut trees with the
intention that they will regrow with
species that will regrow from the stumps
humans are part of the ecosystem and
benefiting all life many people are
afraid to cut their plants because they
think that they’re hurting them but
actually what happens when you do
compassing or polling that resets the
plants biological clock and it extends
the life of the plant so while you might
think oh my God no I’m killing it
actually what you’re doing is making
this plant live longer and if you use
varieties that are good for basket
making then you have basket making
materials right there growing on your
fence that you prune off every
[Music]
winter the art of creating a basket is
to partner with the willow so you do
what you do and The Willow does what the
willow does and you end up making
something
[Music]
together
the amazing thing about baskets is that
the willow is so beautiful that even
your first basket is going to be
beautiful plastic only became commonly
in use in the 1960s one of the things
people used to do before plastic was
make a lot more baskets as we
de-industrialized we’re going to be
making baskets more it’s going to be
really valuable that you have your
basket materials right there growing in
your
garden usually the fencing isn’t part of
your garden it’s just the boundary but
when you’re growing a living wheel of
fence the fencing is a crop you can
actually Harvest that and use it for
feeding livestock especially here where
we have a really dry summer if you don’t
irrigate your pastures by August they’re
all dried out and the food value is gone
but in August your trees and shrubs
still have green leaves that are high in
food value and it’s the perfect time to
cut them the trees have already done
most of what they need to do to survive
the winter especially when it’s common
to buy hay from farther away and import
it with fossil fuels it’s really good to
think about what we’re going to do when
that system doesn’t work anymore growing
trees and shrubs on your land in order
to feed your livestock during that
summer drought season is a really good
way to increase the resilience of being
able to support yourself one of the
things that Willow will do for your
animals is reduce their parasite loads
so reducing parasite loads actually
helps them utilize their other forage
sources more effectively because they’re
not being stressed by the parasites you
can get started with Willows and within
5 Years be doing significant carbon
sequestration and helping feed your
animals a variety of foods Willow is an
amazing friend for helping us with
ecological restoration today we’re at a
40 acre property in the Coyote Creek
Watershed to help prevent erosion on a
pond Bank by planting Willows and
creating some Willow spiling along the
bank to hold the bank in place we’re
putting these stakes in like right up
against where there’s Bank on one side
and water on the other side water that
is rapidly moving against banks will
cause erosion in some places we actually
want that to happen because we want
streams to have meanders that slows the
streams down and helps the water sink
into the ground to recharge the water
table but there’s other places where we
might see erosion happening that’s
actually causing damage and it’s not
helping the water slow down and may
actually be helping the water speed up
and leave the landscape faster so in
this case we have waves that come across
the pond from wind and they slam into
one side of the pond and wash the soil
down so that makes the pond fill in so
makes the pond shallower and it also
erodes the soil away from the roots of
the plants that are growing on the side
of the pond planting Willows along that
bank can help slow that down and hold
the soil in place spiling is when you
take living stems of plants often
Willows but not always and you put them
in the ground and then you take more
living stems of usually the same plant
and weave them in and out so you’re
basically making a basket that is rooted
into the ground and then soil will be
heaped on the uphill side of of that and
then all of those stems will attempt to
root into the soil usually the ones that
are vertical will have a very high
success rate in rooting and the ones
that are horizontal will have a lower
success rate in rooting so the
horizontal ones have a dual purpose of
holding the soil in place now while it’s
not rooted and then some of those will
root to continue holding the soil later
but even if they don’t the uppr ones
will root and that will hold the soil as
these horizontal ones
die when we’re looking at using
biological solutions to the world’s
problems Willow is infinitely useful
weaving basketry shade soil building
stream restoration animal forage in the
summertime erosion control Willow is
such an incredibly useful plant Willow
is a really easy entry point into
reclaiming our ability to live on land
because Willow is so flexible and
forgiving it’s almost The Stereotype of
the willow the storm bends the branches
and yet they do not break I use Willow
as an image for my own resilience during
these challenging times the fact that
when I cut the Willow Willow grows back
in a way that actually is more generous
makes more useful shoots for baskets all
the ways that we get hurt that I feel
I’m hurt during this time in history and
just being cut again and again and again
and how can I manifest my inner
generosity and grow back in a way that
produces good in this world there’s so
much to learn from Willow as we figure
out how to belong again on this
Earth are you ready to transform deserts
create Lush backyards and feed
communities in my almost 30 years as a
permaculture designer traveling the
world I’ve put everything I learned into
Oregon State University’s online
permaculture design course or PDC the
PDC and PDC Pro are the ultimate ways to
begin mastering permaculture Me and My
Team guide you through over 20
assignments with more than 100 hours of
top quality video lectures and resources
all focused on developing your own
property or project throughout the
course you’ll get personalized feedback
from a dedicated instructor in a small
group setting people are always asking
me how can I be part of the solution
this is your starting point check the
link below for upcoming courses and join
us in creating a better world for
everyone see you in class