Growing willow trees, an agriculture experiment | Home & Garden

The cold, drizzly weather doesn’t get in the way of one of the first winter harvests at Horn Farm Center.

The crop? Sticks.

“What we’re looking for is the nice, straight, long rods,” Executive Director Alexis Campbell tells the few volunteers who braved the weather.

The willow branches they cut come from trees that hold soil in place along a creek, protecting the Susquehanna River and downstream, the Chesapeake Bay. Left alone, these willow branches will grow into tall trees. Severely pruning the trees instead is one of the farm’s newest regenerative agriculture experiments. This winter harvest brings a fresh crop of branches for basketry and other uses.

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An adaptive species

The willow trees are some of the few nonnative plants at the nonprofit’s property in Hellam Township, York County. Native varieties like black willow grow on the farm, but their branches form rustic baskets — more bushcraft than works of art, says Andrew Leahy, community engagement coordinator.

So, the majority of willow on the farm are European varieties, cultivated over generations to produce the kind of strong, flexible branches basket makers want. Harvesting long, straight, stems with no side branches starts when the trees are planted.

“We’re not spacing them like you would if you were just planting an ornamental tree, they are spaced about a foot apart,” Campbell says. “That plays into how we want the rods to grow: nice and straight and long. It forces them to grow straight up as opposed to branching out laterally. It’s kind of all condensed into a pretty small space.”

In the dormant season, winter, staff and volunteers harvest branches, cutting close to the ground level. This pruning technique, called coppicing, keeps the willows small enough to look like rows of shrubs. Without such severe pruning, they would grow into full-sized trees.

This technique’s evolved as a way for willows to survive even if humans with pruners are nowhere near.

“Historically, they’ve been in relationship with beavers,” Leahy says. “So willows, dogwoods and other wetland adaptive species are really good at kind of taking that pressure of being basically chomped down to the ground on a pretty regular basis and then sending up numerous shoots as an adaptive strategy to ensure their survival.”

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Regenerative crop

As the willow branches have grown over the past few years, staff and volunteers planted a total of 17,000 trees in a 6-acre creekside riparian buffer. The trees and plants in the buffer protect the watershed. They’re also part of the farm’s focus on farming that looks beyond crop production yields.

“We’re not just looking at the bottom line. We’re looking at, are we improving water quality? Are we improving soil health? Are we adding biodiversity to the landscape and supporting our local ecology?” Campbell says.

The trees are growing, protecting the waterway and capturing carbon. Now staff are exploring the riparian buffer to understand how to manage the plants and learn what crops can be harvested. That includes willow branches, which delights Campbell because they can be harvested without disturbing the soil, keeping soil biology intact and happy.

Cutting willow branches is a first step into agroforestry for the farm’s staff who want to share what they’ve learned with farmers and landowners.

“What are the markets for these products? What’s the equipment that we need and best practices?” Campbell says. “It’s pretty exciting because it’s all pretty new.”

Willow weaving

Eventually, Horn Farm Center would like to have a willow branch harvest good enough to sell for basketry. Last year, the willow harvest reached giftable quality. Staff gave the branches to Dan Brockett, co-owner of Foggy Blossom Farm.

Brockett started weaving in 2018 as a winter project. Something clicked, yet he had trouble finding shippable branches in the U.S. He now grows more than 100 varieties of willow on his Pittsburgh-area farm. The willow branches can be purple, red, green, brown or black. Rods can grow in one color, change during dormancy, and again after drying, soaking and drying a second time, he says.

Currently, his willow harvest is used for weaving classes. This year, he’ll teach seven around the country.

Growing willow, harvesting, processing the branches plus weaving and teaching is rewarding but exhausting, he says. Still, he’s impressed by this plant’s versatility and beauty. Willow has been used as a pain reliever for centuries and can be cattle feed, a wind break, a living fence or even a casket, like the one Brockett wove last year.

Harvest time

At Horn Farm Center, as staff learn about willow, they’re sharing through classes plus hands-on practice at harvest days. The next harvest days are Jan. 20 and 22 with more coming in February.

Hannah Andersson, of Manheim, joined one of the first sessions in December. She recently returned to Lancaster County after studying ecological design in Massachusetts and saw this is a chance to learn more.

“I’ve enjoyed wild harvesting, making crafts and foraging, so this activity seems right up my alley,” she says.

Aside from basketry, there are other possibilities for Horn Farm Center’s willow branches. Letting branches grow three or four years allows them to become fence posts. Weaving smaller willow branches between the posts can make a wattle fence, something Campbell would like to try. And some day, willow sculptures might bring even larger works of living art to the farm.

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