The wonders of willow

Willows work really hard for their place in your garden, and they support and nourish other plants, says Toby

WHENEVER I start a kitchen garden or allotment, willow is among the first things I plant. Its abundant crops of pliable stems are so useful for weaving into wigwams and plant supports. But that’s not the only use for this remarkable plant.

As anyone who has wielded a pruning saw knows, trees and shrubs consist of two types of wood: hard ‘heartwood’ in the centre, and soft easily sawn ‘sapwood’ that makes up the branches and twigs.

Heartwood creates a frame that keeps the leafy and blossoming parts of the plants aloft. Although this outer stuff lacks strength, it’s packed with plant hormones and goodness that’s easily returned to the soil as a chipped mulch.

This is especially true of coppiced willow that’s cut to the ground every one-three years, as the whippy regrowth is heartwood-free and goes through a garden shredder like a dream.

If spread immediately, while fresh, the goodness these shreddings contain passes into the ground, giving everything – from hungry roses and brassicas to establishing trees and flowering shrubs – a natural plant pick-me-up.

If you don’t have room to grow a coppiced willow, any twiggy clippings, from hedge trimmings to dogwood or fruit-tree prunings, will do the same, but chipped willow has another benefit.

From the giant weeping kind to the common osier, all willow species contain large amounts of salicylic acid, a hormone that plants use to boost disease or drought resistance. And this is useful.

Studies have shown that apple trees mulched with willow woodchips are less prone to leaf and fruit deforming

scab – a disease for which there is no bottled cure.

In fact, Ben Raskin, the author of a new book on woodchips, has a hunch that other types of chipped wood could provide natural preventions and cures for a whole range of diseases.

It’s early days – all I know is that whether used for disease prevention, weaving or boosting fertility, willow is the plant every garden should have.

■ The Woodchip Handbook by Ben Raskin is available from Chelsea Green Press, £20.

“Chopped willow is a natural plant pick-me-up”

Willow and hazel sticks being used in a wigwam structure as a rustic support for sweet peas The cut whippy stems of ornamental willow (Salix alba), coppiced before the leaves break in winter, are loaded with plant goodness Woodchips from trees like willow make a nourishing and protective mulch, as seen here around this chard plant