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SydneyMichalski🌿NatureMoments's avatar

Willows are so wonderful! We have a local "pussy willow" that grows wild on the homestead that I appreciate so much :) Fascinating information. Things in nature, even the ones you think you know, seem always to be even more widely useful the more you learn. I'm sorry for your loss - I know how it feels a bit personal when you lose something you've planted, especially when it's so unexpected!

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Roselle Angwin's avatar

Thanks, Sydney.

Lovely to think of your pussy willow - and the bees it must attract. We had a lot in Devon; not quite as many here, though there are one or two in the unvisited woodland.

I think I can sound a bit smug when I list the many things we successfully grew in our first year; it's useful to remember also the ones that didn't make it! ;-)

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Jan Elisabeth's avatar

Really sad to read about the willow slips, yet this is still such a beautiful and hopeful post. Thank you.

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Roselle Angwin's avatar

Hello Jan! Thank you. Going over to respond to your lovely email soon.

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Laura Perry's avatar

Such a sadness, to watch plants succumb like that. I'm so sorry. We had two lovely willows on our property, one that succumbed to toxic street runoff and the other to fungus. On reflection, the spots they were in weren't good choices for willow (the previous owners planted them) and we chose nut trees to replace them. It's hard, trying to hear what the land wants while it, too struggles to cope with the changing climate.

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Roselle Angwin's avatar

That's sad too, Laura.

Yes; I'm trying to adjust to thinking about what trees might grow in our normally-temperate (actually normally very wet!) zone if we begin to have a more Mediterranean climate.

What nut trees did you plant?

Thanks for the comment.

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Laura Perry's avatar

We ended up planting a butternut, which is a native North American tree, and a Japanese walnut. They're thriving. The area by the house, where they are, is simply too dry and unsheltered for willows. I suspect the previous owners chose them for looks without understanding their needs. They were beautiful trees.

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Roselle Angwin's avatar

Interesting – butternut for us is a squash, so I know nothing of that tree. Walnuts: we have a beautifully productive one here, but once again I know nothing of Japanese ones. I appreciate this exchange and learning.

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Laura Perry's avatar

What sort of walnut tree do you have? I'm beginning to appreciate how valuable nut trees are in a forest garden.

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Roselle Angwin's avatar

Hello again Laura – you know, I don't know if it's a nigra or a regia – we inherited it. But after what you said about cinerea, I looked it up in my wonderful Martin Crawford Growing Nuts book (he's THE forest gardener over in the UK), and I see it will grow happily in Britain, so I assume here too. We might get one as he says it's relatively fast-growing. We have a lot of chestnuts on the land we belong to; they're a staple here, or were, as in other parts of rural France.

Thanks for your comments, Laura.

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Laura Perry's avatar

We have butternut squash as well - I grew some this year. The tree is Juglans cinerea, native to eastern North America. It was a popular shade/food tree on pioneer-era homesteads. It's self-pollinating, so I'm growing a few more from this one's seed. I've really gotten into growing things from seed the past couple of years. A surprising number of fruit and nut trees will grow true from seed (just not pome fruits like apples and pears).

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